Judge expected to rule on release of bodycam video in shooting of Marimar Martinez by federal agents
A federal judge in Chicago is expected to rule on Friday on whether body camera footage will be released, showing border patrol agents shooting a woman five times in Brighton Park.
Martinez was shot five times in Brighton Park on Oct. 4, 2025. Federal agents claimed she chased them and rammed her car into an agent's car during an immigration protest near Pershing Road and Kedzie Avenue, but nearly two months after she was shot, federal prosecutors dropped assault charges that had been filed against her. A judge dismissed them with prejudice, which prevents the government from filing them against her again.
Attorney Christopher Parente has sought to have body camera video footage and other evidence from her criminal case released, arguing the Trump administration has continued to describe her as a "domestic terrorist" who rammed federal agents with her car, even after prosecutors dropped the criminal case against her.
In a filing on Thursday, Parente said the Trump administration is still refusing to back down from its attacks on Martinez, arguing the Department of Homeland Security "has since made clear they have no intention of stopping their campaign of misinformation against Marimar Martinez."
Federal prosecutors have said they will not oppose the release of body camera footage which shows the moments leading up to Martinez's shooting by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum on Oct. 4, but would object to releasing any of Exum's text messages about the shooting that have not already been made public.
Court records in the case already have revealed text messages from Exum in which he appears to brag to fellow agents about the shooting: "I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys."
Prosecutors have argued that making other text messages from Exum now that charges against Martinez have been dropped would "serve only to further sully Agent Exum, his family, and co-workers without any corresponding benefit to Ms. Martinez."
However, Parente argued that other text messages not yet made public "completely undermine" Exum's credibility about what happened on the day of the shooting and would contradict Homeland Security's "false domestic terrorist label" of Martinez. He said any potential fallout from the release of Exum's text messages would be "a fully deserved, self-imposed sullying."
"Marimar Martinez had no say in being branded as a 'domestic terrorist' by her government. The Government drafted those words. The Government sent those words out to the world. Unlike Exum, she never had a say in the things being written about her, as opposed to Exum having had full say in the things he chose to write and disseminate," Parente wrote.
Martinez plans to attend President Trump's State of the Union address to Congress later this month, according to her attorney. She will attend as the guest of U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-IL), her attorney revealed in a court filing.
