The Department of Justice nixed a civil rights investigation of a federal agent purportedly captured on video placing his boot on the neck of a Latino worker at a Grainger County slaughterhouse – within days of receiving a referral on the incident and one week before the agent was interviewed about it, newly revealed records show.
The Justice Department’s refusal to probe the actions of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Agent John Witsell in an April 2018 raid on the Southeastern Provision slaughterhouse was revealed in a motion filed July 29 in U.S. District Court.
The motion shows the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was notified of the alleged excessive force by Witsell on March 28. Within days, the division stated in a letter that it would not conduct a formal inquiry, according to court records.
The motion also reveals that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility, which is tasked with investigating and policing agents under the agency’s authority, declined in late June to take any disciplinary action against Witsell in connection with the same videotaped incident.
But all records related to the decisions by the Department of Justice and the Office of Professional Responsibility, as well as the video at issue, are – so far – being kept hidden from the public. Witsell is asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Steger to permanently seal those records and the video, but Steger has not yet issued a ruling.