A Harris County grand jury has indicted Mario Alberto Morales, an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon over the Oct. 10 incident in west Houston in which a vehicle Morales was driving struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez. District Attorney Sean Teare and Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced the indictment Friday.
The charge is a second-degree felony. Under Texas law, a conviction carries 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. An indictment is a formal accusation, and Morales is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The top federal prosecutor in Houston objected the same day. U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz of the Southern District of Texas called the case "what looks like a political prosecution of an ICE agent for doing his job" and said his office "was not consulted or even notified" before the indictment.
What each side says
The district attorney's office posted the 911 call and video from the scene with its news conference. "An ICE badge does not give you a free reign to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone," Teare said there, Houston Public Media reported. On the portions of the 911 call he played, Morales can be heard describing Parra-Hernandez as "fine" and saying he had been trying to get around him.
ICE gives a different account. A spokesperson told the station that Parra-Hernandez ran into the path of the officer's vehicle while agents were trying to arrest another man, after he fled an attempted traffic stop. The agency called the indictment a "political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians" and said federal officers acting in their duties "can only be investigated by other federal agencies." Teare called that claim "patently false."
Morales's lawyer, David Lindenmuth, told the station his client did not intentionally hit Parra-Hernandez. "This was nothing more than an accident, and the driving force behind this accident is somebody who fled from law enforcement," he said. He said Morales planned to turn himself in on Monday.
Reitz said he had personally done a preliminary review and sees "no basis for federal charges at this time," though his office will keep evaluating the evidence. His statement does not say whether the county has the authority to bring its own case.
The man who was hit
Parra-Hernandez's leg and ankle were broken, and he has been held in ICE custody since the crash. His lawyer, Kim Bruno, said it is unclear whether he will walk again. She said Friday afternoon that he did not yet know about the indictment.
What could come next
Federal law lets a federal officer charged in state court for actions taken under the authority of the office ask to move the case to federal court. Whether Morales will ask for that is not yet known.
Teare's office is also investigating the July shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent, the case Reitz referred to in his statement. Teare has said his office is getting ready to take that case to a grand jury.
