U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro's office failed to secure a misdemeanor conviction against a woman after also failing three attempts to have grand juries indict her on felony assault charges.
In July, Pirro's office accused Sydney Lori Reid, 44, of assaulting FBI agent Eugenia Bates while she was assisting ICE officer Vincent Liang, who was waiting to arrest two people outside of DC Jail. Liang grabbed Reid as she was filming and pushed her against a wall.
"During Reid's active resistance to being detained, the FBI agent's hand was injured from striking and scraping the cement wall causing lacerations while the FBI agent was assisting ICE ERO officers," a press release from the Department of Justice said in July.
After failing to secure felony indictments from grand juries, Reid was charged with assault. But the prosecution's case was plagued by evidence problems during the trial.
Bates spent much of her three days on the stand explaining text messages that downplayed her injuries and described Reid as a "libtard." The final text messages turned over on Wednesday morning did not include what defense attorneys said was "the most damning one."
"You should be livid that the government brought this case," assistant federal public defender Tezira Abe told the jury. "They overplayed their hand on this one."
The jury found Reid not guilty after less than two hours of deliberation.
