MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration officer charged with shooting a Venezuelan man during the immigration crackdown that roiled Minneapolis early this year made a brief first appearance Thursday before a Minnesota judge, following months of legal and political battles over whether he would be extradited from Texas to face state charges.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro, handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, stood quietly in a glass enclosure in a Minneapolis jail courtroom for the hearing. He faces a separate hearing Friday in federal court for charges that he lied to investigators about the January shooting.
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Judge Paul Scoggin set bail at $400,000, or $200,000 if Castro agreed to a series of conditions, including that he sign a waiver saying he wouldn’t fight extradition back to Minnesota if he leaves the state while out on bail.
Castro, 52, signed the waiver during the hearing but was still listed as a county jail prisoner late Thursday afternoon.
He was arrested Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis by officers with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on state charges of assault and false reporting of a crime stemming from the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
Castro's attorney, Daniel Gerdts, declined to comment after the hearing.
In both the federal and state cases against Castro, prosecutors say he shot 24-year-old Sosa-Celis in the leg while firing through the front door of a Minneapolis home. They say Castro later falsely reported that he had been attacked with a broom handle and a snow shovel before firing his gun.
Minnesota prosecutors charged him in May but were thwarted in their efforts to bring him from his home state of Texas, where he had been arrested.
In the end, Castro came to Minnesota on his own to face federal charges in an indictment announced early this month.
“Castro invented a story to justify shooting through a front door into a house with multiple people in it,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the prosecutor handling the state case, told reporters after Thursday’s hearing. “His appearance in a Hennepin County courtroom today is a critical step in our efforts to hold him accountable for that shooting.”
Friday's hearing, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, involves the separate federal case in which he is charged with making false statements to investigators regarding the shooting. Castro’s defense attorneys in that case have said he plans to plead not guilty.
It’s the first Justice Department prosecution of a federal officer for actions taken during this year’s massive Operation Metro Surge, which brought thousands of agents to the Twin Cities and led to sweeping protests, arrests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal officers.
Minnesota authorities have battled President Donald Trump's administration over who should handle any charges against Castro. The Department of Homeland Security has called Minnesota’s prosecution of Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt,” saying only federal authorities have jurisdiction.
Authorities, including Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested Castro in Cameron County, Texas, on May 29, after a Minnesota judge issued a nationwide warrant. Under Texas law, Castro could be detained for 90 days, during which Minnesota sought his extradition. But Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last month refused to sign an extradition warrant.
Castro was then released in Texas and soon after was indicted on the federal charges. He then turned himself in to federal authorities and returned to Minnesota on his own.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Sosa-Celis’ middle name and the location of Friday's federal court hearing.
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Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
