CHICAGO — Lawyers for a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent about to go on trial on charges he robbed and sexually assaulted prostitutes in Chicago-area hotel rooms have asked a judge to dismiss the indictment, arguing the same “tainted” grand jury also handled the now-dismissed “Broadview Six” case.

“Based on what is currently known, the Special June 2024 Grand Jury was irrevocably tainted by government misconduct,” lawyer for Luis Uribe argued in a motion filed Monday morning. “And based only on what is currently known, that misconduct not only prejudiced Uribe personally, but was also widespread across multiple investigations and multiple grand juries.”

Uribe, 45, was charged in an indictment unsealed in December with 10 counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law and one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted, Uribe faces a mandatory minimum seven years in federal prison and a maximum of life.

A jury trial in Uribe’s case is currently set to begin in two weeks.

But his lawyer, Michael Clancy, said in the motion Monday that he only recently learned that the grand jury involved in Uribe’s case was the same one that had brought charges against the “Broadview Six” immigration protesters in October.

Those charges were ultimately dropped in May when it was discovered the prosecutor in that case, Sheri Mecklenburg, improperly vouched for strength of the evidence and dismissed jurors who were skeptical of her presentation.

Mecklenburg did not handle Uribe’s case. But Clancy’s motion said the grand jury heard testimony from several witnesses against Uribe on Oct. 9, the day that the panel had returned a “no bill” in Broadview case.

It was later revealed that testimony from one alleged victim of Uribe on that day was “mistranslated” by a Mandarin interpreter, and that the original transcript was deemed “inaccurate” by the U.S. attorney’s office, which eventually certified a revised transcript as what was actually said.

“The later FBI translation and transcript do not cure the gross error of the grand jury receiving mistranslated testimony,” Clancy wrote. “That bell cannot be unrung.”

If the indictment against Uribe isn’t dismissed outright, Clancy asked U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso to order prosecutors to turn over the full grand jury transcripts and hold a hearing on the matter.

“The need for a hearing follows from a basic principle of fairness: a defendant should not be made to bear the consequence of the government’s own failure to create a complete record,” Clancy wrote.

The case is the latest example of continuing fallout from the Broadview Six debacle, which has led to charges being reduced or dismissed against half a dozen other defendants so far and prompted calls from Democrats for U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros to step down.

U.S. District Judge April Perry is also considering whether to order discovery and hold hearings into possible sanctions in that case.

Uribe, meanwhile, was charged with using his service weapon and badge to force victims — who were all of Chinese descent — to submit to sex or provide him with cash on six separate occasions in 2022. One of the four victims was attacked three different times, prosecutors said.

At the time of the alleged offenses, Uribe, a U.S. Marines veteran, was a CBP officer assigned “primarily” to O’Hare International Airport and worked on both customs and immigration issues.

As word of the attacks spread, another sex worker was tasked by a China-based boss to meet with Uribe at a seafood buffet restaurant in the northwest suburbs. The goal, prosecutors said, was to surreptitiously get Uribe’s photograph so people could be warned, and also to offer him a deal: free sex if he stopped attacking workers.

“Defendant agreed, however, he did not abide by the terms of the bargain,” prosecutors said.

On Oct. 2, 2022, Uribe attacked a third woman, Victim C, at a hotel in Schaumburg, again brandishing his gun and badge and demanding cash and sex, prosecutors said. Two days later, Schaumburg police interviewed that victim and collected forensic evidence from the room.

Tollway records analyzed by the FBI showed Uribe had left work at O’Hare that day and traveled toward Schaumburg, prosecutors said. While on the highway, he allegedly searched in Google Maps for the hotel where Victim C was staying.

The fourth victim, Victim D, was attacked at a different hotel in Schaumburg a short time after she’d reported Victim C’s assault to their boss, prosecutors said. In that incident, Uribe was “about to rape” Victim D when there was a knock at the door and he fled the hotel.

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