'A good workout?' DHS agent unnerves courtroom during gunpoint sex assault trial

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer charged with raping women at gunpoint took the stand in his own defense and called one alleged attack "a good workout."

Luis Uribe, 45, took the witness stand Tuesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Jon Seidel reported from the courtroom. Federal prosecutors allege Uribe used his gun and badge to sexually assault and rob four Chinese women at hotels in Schaumburg and Naperville in 2022, when he was stationed at O'Hare International Airport.

He faces 10 counts of depriving the women of their rights "under color of law," a charge that covers crimes committed by officials using their government authority, plus one count of brandishing a gun during a violent crime, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Defense attorney William Sean Stanton asked Uribe whether his encounters with sex workers were consensual, Seidel reported.

"Yes it was. No means no. Stop means stop," Uribe answered.

"I never raped anybody in my whole life," he told jurors.

"If I knew I was going to see one of these women, these prostitutes," Uribe testified, he left his gun, knife, baton and handcuffs behind at work. "All those tools I would leave it at work."

Uribe described a February 2022 visit in which he said he paid $140 for half an hour, and he denied pulling a gun on the woman, Seidel reported.

"[S]he actually gave me a hug," Uribe said of the end of that encounter.

Uribe also testified that the boss of the sex work operation was in China and wanted to know how to bring more women into the United States at a time when he said no flights were arriving from there. That testimony drew confused looks at the prosecution table, Seidel reported.

The woman who testified Monday asked him for immigration help more than 10 times and grew angry when he refused, Uribe said. He told jurors she then sent him a text message.

"[I]f you don't help me with all my immigration issues, help my boss, it's going to be bad for you. I suggest you help me. If you don't help me, I'm going to tell my sisters to testify against you," Uribe said the message read.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih opened his cross-examination by handing Uribe the badge he once carried, Seidel reported.

"Any time you show your gun you're acting under the authority of CBP?" Shih asked.

"Yes," Uribe replied.

Shih then showed jurors a photograph of Uribe posing with his gun in a mirror, challenging his account of handling the weapon safely, Seidel reported.

"If you look closely … my finger is safe and off the trigger," Uribe said.

"You were being safe?? This is safe??" Shih asked.

Shih turned to an encounter Uribe attended after leaving work early for department physical fitness time, Seidel reported.

"I still got a good workout in," Uribe said.

"You're describing the rape … as a good workout??" Shih asked.

"It wasn't a rape, it was consensual sex," Uribe insisted.

Uribe acknowledged using messaging apps such as WhatsApp to hide his infidelity from his wife, Seidel reported.

"You were hiding your true self to all of those people," Shih said.

"Yes," Uribe said.

"Just like you're hiding your true self to this jury right now," Shih said.

Before wrapping up his cross-examination, Shih noted that the four accusers were Chinese, spoke little English and were engaged in illegal work, telling jurors it would be "less likely that anybody would believe them."

"That's why you preyed on them?" Shih asked.

"How did I prey on them, I didn't prey on nobody," Uribe said.

Uribe's attorneys asked no follow-up questions when Shih finished, and the testimony ended there, Seidel reported.