Judge Orders Video and Texts Unsealed in Case of Chicago Woman Shot 5 Times by Border Patrol |
Police Abuse
C.J. Ciaramella | 2.6.2026 2:18 PM
A federal judge in Chicago today ordered evidence unsealed in the case of Marimar Martinez, a U.S. citizen who was shot five times by a Customs and Border Protection officer last October.
U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois Georgia Alexakis ruled that Martinez had shown good cause for the release of text messages and body camera footage from the officer who shot her, while the government had shown "zero concern" for Martinez's reputation.
Martinez's attorneys have been pressing to unseal the evidence because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refuses to retract its previous statements calling Martinez a "domestic terrorist," despite federal prosecutors dropping the charges against her. If the government won't correct the record, they argued, Martinez should have the opportunity to do it herself.
Alexakis agreed. "Ms. Martinez is a United States citizen. She's a resident of this district. And under our legal system, she is presumed innocent of any offense of which she has not been convicted," the judge said at today's hearing.
Border Patrol officer Charles Exum shot Martinez five times on October 4 after a traffic incident in Chicago. Martinez says she was following the officers in her car and blowing her horn to warn others of their presence before the CBP vehicle sideswiped her. In a press release issued the same day as the shooting, DHS claimed that agents were "boxed in by 10........