Prosecutor accused of misconduct in 'Broadview Six' case resigns, says
US attorney 'scapegoated' her
[September 26, 2026]
By CYBELE MAYES-OSTERMAN
CHICAGO (AP) — A prosecutor who has been accused of misconduct over a
failed attempt to bring felony charges against six protesters of the
federal immigration crackdown in Chicago has resigned, saying she was
being treated as a scapegoat after the case fell apart.
In a scathing letter Thursday to Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for
the Northern District of Illinois, prosecutor Sheri Mecklenburg wrote
that she was “retiring under protest.”
“You have forced me to choose between remaining silent while my
professional reputation is destroyed and prematurely surrendering my
cherished career," Mecklenburg wrote in the letter obtained by The
Associated Press. "I choose the latter.”
Mecklenburg accused Boutros of “laying responsibility at my feet for a
felony prosecution that you personally directed over my objection that
the case was better suited to misdemeanor charges.”
“I was a convenient target to be scapegoated and publicly vilified,” she
wrote.
Boutros’ office did not immediately return a request for comment on the
letter. Joel Bertocchi, an attorney for Mecklenburg, declined to
comment.
During protests last fall against the Trump administration’s immigration
crackdown in the Chicago area, Boutros' office moved to press felony
charges against six people for allegedly conspiring to impede an officer
during a protest at an immigration detention facility in the Chicago
suburb of Broadview.
A grand jury twice refused to indict the group after Mecklenburg, an
attorney on the case, presented them with evidence.
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People protest outside a federal immigration enforcement building in
Broadview, Ill. on Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Laura Bargfeld, File)
In the following months, the charges fell apart, and in May, Boutros
dismissed the case altogether. It was among a string of cases in
which the Trump administration leveled charges at anti-immigration
enforcement protesters that did not ultimately stick.
The protesters, who have come to be known as the “Broadview Six,”
have accused Mecklenburg of prosecutorial misconduct in her
interactions with jury members, and have asked U.S. District Judge
April M. Perry to consider sanctions on her. Perry is scheduled to
hear oral arguments in the case Oct. 1.
In a motion filed Thursday, Mecklenburg informed the court of her
retirement and asked to appear as an independent party in the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office had previously barred her from filing
“anything on her behalf” and told her she “could be disciplined or
terminated if she did so," the motion read.
Terence Campbell, an attorney for Andre Martin, one of the former
defendants, said Mecklenburg's “forced resignation letter raises a
number of serious factual disputes" between her account and that of
Boutros' office about why the case was brought.
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