Jury finds DC ‘sandwich guy’ not guilty of assaulting officer
A jury on Thursday acquitted a D.C. man who was charged with assault after throwing a sandwich at a federal agent during President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the capital.
The one-sided food fight, which was captured on video and spread through social media, became a slapstick symbol of resistance to Trump’s summertime takeover of local law enforcement. The defendant, Sean C. Dunn, said he was speaking out against fascism and anti-migrant policies from the Trump administration.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the 37-year-old Air Force veteran was not on trial for protesting but for “throwing a sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range.” Prosecutors sought to indict Dunn on a felony assault count, but a grand jury rejected that charge, and prosecutors downgraded it to a misdemeanor.
The trial jury in U.S. District Court rejected that charge as well, deliberating for seven hours over two days before returning the not-guilty verdict.
It was the highest-profile repudiation to date of Pirro’s efforts to ratchet up penalties for local offenses. Grand juries have declined to indict several people accused of assaulting federal officers this year. A trial jury last month acquitted a D.C. woman, Sydney L. Reid, who had rowdily protested an immigration arrest at the doors of the city jail and was charged with the same misdemeanor as Dunn.
The prosecution called two witnesses at Dunn’s trial: the Customs and Border Protection agent who was on the receiving end of the sandwich and a Metro Transit Police detective who saw the Aug. 10 incident unfold. Defense attorneys called no witnesses.
The straitlaced court proceedings seemed to crack at times as lawyers played video of Dunn bobbing up and down, hurling expletives at a group of law enforcement officers patrolling a popular nightlife area at 14th and U Streets NW, as a bystander chuckled at the scene and offered running commentary. (“No, Superman!”)
Jurors also saw video of the sandwich being thrown, the short-lived foot chase that followed and Dunn’s statements after the arrest: “I did it. I threw a sandwich. I did it to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”
The meatiest factual dispute concerned whether the salami sub had “exploded” on the CBP agent’s uniform. The agent, Gregory Lairmore, testified that he mostly tried to ignore Dunn’s late-night tirade outside a Subway restaurant, until he felt the impact of the sandwich through his bulletproof vest.
“The sandwich kind of exploded all over my uniform,” Lairmore said. “It smelled of onions and mustard.”
Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff then displayed a photo of the wrapped sandwich lying on the ground and pressed the agent to clarify whether it had really exploded. Lairmore said a piece of the sub seemed to be visible in the photo. “I had mustard and condiments on my uniform, and an onion hanging from my radio antenna that night,” the agent said.
During closing arguments Wednesday, Shroff questioned whether Lairmore really felt threatened, noting that his co-workers gave him a plush toy sandwich as a gag gift, which he displayed on his office shelf, and an insignia that he affixed on his lunchbox, showing a likeness of Dunn hoisting a hoagie above the words “Felony Footlong.”
“They’re joking about it with each other, and they’re joking about it with Agent Lairmore. Why? Because they think it’s funny,” she said.
Judge Carl J. Nichols instructed the jury that to convict Dunn, they would have to find he acted forcibly and generated a “reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm.”
Dunn’s attorneys said Lairmore was “very heavily armed” and with a group of law enforcement officers, in addition to wearing the bulletproof vest. “If that vest … is going to keep you safe from military rifle fire, it is certainly going to keep you safe from a sandwich,” Shroff said.
“In this country, the last time I checked, dissent and opposition are not crimes,” she said.
Prosecutors asked jurors to set aside any opinions they might have about Trump’s law enforcement surge and find Dunn guilty. A Washington Post-Schar School poll of D.C. residents conducted in August found that 8 in 10 respondents opposed Trump’s executive order to federalize law enforcement in the city for one month, with about 7 in 10 opposing it “strongly.”
“This case is not about someone with strong opinions. It’s not about immigration. It’s not about the First Amendment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo said in his closing Wednesday. “It’s about someone who crossed the line.”
Dunn was a paralegal for the Office of International Affairs in the Justice Department’s criminal division in Washington until he was fired over the incident. He deployed to Afghanistan for several months from 2010 to 2011 as a member of the Air Force. His late-night caper inspired several online memes and D.C. mural art.
“I’m relieved, and I’m looking forward to moving on with my life,” Dunn told reporters after the verdict was read.
Trump declared a crime emergency in the District on Aug. 11. The declaration expired the following month, but about 2,500 National Guard troops summoned by the president continue to patrol the city. A federal judge has indicated she may rule soon on a legal challenge brought by D.C. officials seeking to end the National Guard deployment.