Former WGN Employee Files $10M Claim Against Border Protection Over Violent Chicago Arrest

Last October, we reported that an employee at Chicago’s WGN TV station was temporarily detained during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood, resulting in video footage going viral that showed the employee being forced to the ground by two agents, whom she can be heard identifying herself to before telling them where she works, which did not stop the agents from continuing to handle her roughly, to the point where it appeared that they had pulled the woman’s pants down.

Well, now, that employee is suing the agency for $10 million.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Debbie Brockman, who no longer works for the network, but served in its creative services department at the time of her detention, filed administrative complaints against the federal agency under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which the Times described as “a necessary legal step on the way to possibly filing a lawsuit against the federal government.”

Brockman alleges in her filing that as a result of her violent arrest, she suffered headaches, pain, tenderness, contusions, anxiety and nausea among other physical and emotional injuries, and she is accusing the agents involved of assault and battery, false imprisonment, false arrest, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

“It’s horrific that a government agency supposedly established to keep America safe is terrorizing communities, killing people, and violently targeting individuals they assume are not citizens,” Brockman said in a news release Tuesday. “We are not safe with these armed, masked agents lurking in our neighborhoods showing little to no regard towards the lives of the people who live here.”

As previously reported, at the time of the arrest, the Department of Homeland Security did its usual song and dance of claiming everything that happened was the victim’s fault while making the agents out to be victims themselves. Former DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin — who has since been dismissed from her role, just like a myriad of Trump administration officials involved in immigration enforcement, who just can’t seem to hold on to their jobs — claimed Brockman “threw objects at border patrol’s car, and she was placed under arrest for assault on a federal law enforcement officer,” which was a decidedly odd claim to make, considering Brockman was released with no charges whatsoever.

Here’s how the whole thing started, via the Sun-Times:

Brockman was walking to a bus stop for work around 8:35 a.m. Oct. 10 when federal agents threw her to the ground, handcuffed her and put her in a federal van, the claim states.

It started, according to video reviewed by the Sun-Times, when those federal agents, traveling in a silver Chrysler minivan, ended up stuck behind a black SUV which had stopped diagonally in front of it. Instead of trying to go around the SUV, an agent got out of the van and walked up to the SUV, trying to open its door. When that was unsuccessful, the agents returned to the van and quickly pulled away, hitting the side of the SUV as the van sped away.

Now, as far as where McLaughlin got it from that Brockman threw objects at the agents’ vehicle, well, your guess is as good as mine. But considering the fact that judges have repeatedly blasted federal agents and their DHS handlers over “discrepancies” and outright lies about how clashes between agents and civilians started in and outside of Chicago, it’s probably safe to speculate that DHS got its info the same way it typically does: police be lying, including federal police.

SEE ALSO:

ICE Agents Cuff, Arrest WGN Employee They Say Assaulted Them

Lawyers For Chicago Woman Shot By Border Patrol Threaten Civil Rights Lawsuit