A trial for a Worcester City Councilor and a former school committee candidate who were present at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest is set for Feb. 10, a judge ruled Wednesday.
District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and former Worcester School Committee candidate Ashley R. Spring were both charged in connection with their interactions with Worcester police officers who were called to Eureka Street on May 8 during the arrest of a Brazilian mother of four.
Haxhiaj was charged with one misdemeanor count of assault and battery on a police officer and one common law violation for interfering with a police officer.
The councilor lost her re-election bid this year to Jose Rivera and will not be a city councilor come the new year.
Spring, who uses they/them pronouns, was previously charged with misdemeanors of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers.
Spring was also charged with a felony of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Police had initially claimed the weapon was an “unknown liquid,” but later revealed that they knew it was water.
Prosecutors dropped the charge involving a dangerous weapon on July 23.
Both Spring and Haxhiaj sought to dismiss the remaining charges against them but Judge Janet J. McGuiggan denied both dismissals, according to court records.
Judge Zachary Hillman on Wednesday set a trial for both cases on Feb. 10.
Haxhiaj’s lawyer, Elizabeth K. Halloran told MassLive the court found her arguments to dismiss the charges more suitable for a trial. Halloran previously argued to the court that police body camera footage of the incident shows that Haxhiaj did not intentionally try to touch Police Officer Shauna McGuirk during the arrest.
Spring’s lawyer, Carl Williams, expressed confidence in a favorable outcome following the trial.
“I think justice is on our side,” Williams said. “The law is on our side.”
Spring is expected back in court Dec. 15 for a motion to suppress hearing, according to Williams.
Haxhiaj appeared in court in-person Wednesday but Spring appeared virtually from Florida.
Following her appearance in court Wednesday morning, Haxhiaj met with supporters outside of the courthouse and defended her actions on Eureka Street.
“I want to be very clear. The charges brought against Ashley Spring and I have exposed a culture that we already knew existed,” Haxhiaj said. “Of bullying and retaliation of those who speak up.”
The councilor also criticized Worcester political leaders for being “idle in the face of injustice.”
“History remembers those who act,” she said. “And history remembers those who cower.”
What happened during the May 8 arrest
Spring and Haxhiaj, along with a group of more than 30 people shouted and confronted ICE agents on the street May 8. The agents arrested Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a mother of four from Brazil.
Ferreira-De Oliveira was detained for a combined five months at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island and the Strafford County Corrections facility in Dover, New Hampshire. After a judge granted her asylum, she was released from detention in early October.
During the arrest, Haxhiaj grabbed Ferreira-De Oliveira’s arm and pleaded with the agents not to take her, according to police body camera footage released by the city on May 16. Two of the ICE agents then flung Haxhiaj off of Ferreira-De Oliveira, as seen in the footage.
Video from Officer Shauna McGuirk’s body camera showed Haxhiaj and Ferreira-De Oliveira’s daughter, Augusta Clara Moura, standing next to a gold SUV. Ferreira-De Oliveira was placed inside of the vehicle by ICE agents during the arrest.
In the footage, McGuirk tells Haxhiaj and Clara Moura to move away from the vehicle but Haxhiaj then tells the officer that she has the right to be here as a city councilor.
McGuirk then pulled Haxhiaj away from the vehicle by her back, resulting in Haxhiaj pushing against the officer’s body.
“Do not touch me!” Haxhiaj yelled as she was pulled away from the SUV.
As the vehicle began to leave, Ferreira-De Oliveira’s other daughter, a teenager, ran after it, according to body camera footage.
As she ran down the street, officers began pursuing her and eventually arrested her on the sidewalk, moving her down to the ground.
Officer Juan Vallejo was one of the officers who was near the daughter during the arrest, according to his body camera footage.
Following the arrest of the daughter, Vallejo turns his attention to Spring, who is standing behind him and being handcuffed by another officer.
At the 2:30 mark in the video, Vallejo approaches Spring and points his finger at them, listing charges for another officer: “Disorderly, disturbance, and she sprayed me in the face with water.”
As he moves away from them, the audio catches Spring saying, “It was water.”
Even though Spring and Vallejo both stated that the liquid sprayed was water, the police report indicates that Spring sprayed the officer with an “unknown liquid.”
The daughter was charged with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest but Police Chief Paul Saucier requested a judge to dismiss her case. The daughter had previously ran away from the care of the Department of Children and Families but has since been found safe, according to the Worcester Police Department.
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