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PROSECUTORS FAIL TO OBTAIN INDICTMENT AGAINST MAN WHO THREW SANDWICH
AT FEDERAL AGENT  
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Alan FeuerDevlin Barrett and William K. Rashbaum
August 27, 2025
The New York Times
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_ It was a sharp rebuke to the prosecutors who were assigned to bring
charges against those arrested after President Trump’s deployment of
National Guard troops and federal agents to Washington. _

Sean C. Dunn about to throw sandwich at federal agent in Washington
DC on August 13.,

 

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to persuade a grand jury to
approve a felony indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a
federal agent on the streets of Washington this month, according to
two people familiar with the matter.

The grand jury’s rejection of the felony charge was a remarkable
failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington and the second
time in recent days
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a majority of grand jurors refused to vote to indict a person accused
of felony assault on a federal agent. It also amounted to a sharp
rebuke by a panel of ordinary citizens against the prosecutors
assigned to bring charges against people arrested after President
Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and federal agents to
fight crime and patrol the city’s streets.

The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the
attention paid to the case of the man who threw the sandwich, Sean C.
Dunn. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior
officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage
of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to
Mr. Dunn’s apartment.

It remained unclear if prosecutors planned to try again to obtain an
indictment against Mr. Dunn, 37, a former Justice Department
paralegal. They could also forgo seeking felony charges and refile his
case as a misdemeanor, which does not require an indictment to move
forward.

Mr. Dunn was initially charged on Aug. 13
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a criminal complaint accusing him of throwing a submarine sandwich at
a Customs and Border Protection officer who was on patrol with other
federal agents near the corner of 14th and U Streets in the northwest
section of the capital, a popular part of the city filled with bars
and restaurants.

Before he threw the sandwich, the complaint asserts, Mr. Dunn stood
within inches of the officer, calling him and his colleagues
“fascists” and shouting, “I don’t want you in my city!”

Mr. Dunn’s lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, declined to comment.

It is extremely unusual for prosecutors to come out of a grand jury
without obtaining an indictment because they are in control of the
information that grand jurors hear about a case and defendants are not
allowed to have their lawyers in the room as evidence is presented.

But Mr. Trump’s decision to flood the streets of Washington with
federal agents and military personnel who are generally not trained in
conducting routine police stops has resulted in a flurry of
defendants being charged with federal crimes
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would typically be handled at the local court level, if they were
filed at all.

It has also led to an increasing number of embarrassments for federal
prosecutors, who have had to dismiss weak cases or reduce the charges
that defendants were facing in recent days.

On Monday, for instance, prosecutors refiled a felony assault charge
as a misdemeanor in the case of a woman who was accused of injuring an
F.B.I. agent during a protest last month against immigration officials
at the local jail in Washington.

The charges were reduced against the woman, Sidney Lori Reid, after
prosecutors failed not just once but three times to obtain an
indictment in the case.

That same day, at the request of prosecutors, a federal magistrate
judge dismissed all charges against a man who was arrested at a Trader
Joe’s grocery store last week for what the police said was
possession of two handguns in his bag.

At a hearing, the magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, lambasted
prosecutors for having charged the man, Torez Riley, in an apparent
violation of his constitutional rights.

“Lawlessness cannot come from the government,” Judge Faruqui
said, according to HuffPost
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“We’re pushing the boundaries here.”

In a separate case, the judge blasted federal prosecutors and
corrections officials on Tuesday for having allowed a woman, Kristal
Rios Esquivel, to remain in jail for nearly six days after she was
arrested for allegedly spitting on a National Zoo police sergeant.

Ms. Rios Esquivel’s lawyer, H. Heather Shaner, had submitted
an emergency motion
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the judge seeking her release and ended her filing with a single word,
“HELP!!!”

While Ms. Rios Esquivel was ultimately freed, Judge Faruqui pointed
out in an order
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she had somehow been allowed to languish behind bars even though
prosecutors had not asked for her to be detained.

“This is inexcusable,” he wrote.

Mr. Dunn is scheduled to appear next week in Federal District Court in
Washington for a preliminary hearing where another magistrate judge,
G. Michael Harvey, will determine if there is probable cause that a
crime was committed during the sandwich-throwing incident.

Prosecutors typically have 30 days to secure an indictment after a
defendant is arrested. If they fail to do so within that window, they
either have to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor or dismiss the case
altogether.

_Alan Feuer [[link removed]] covers extremism
and political violence for The Times, focusing on the criminal cases
involving the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and against former
President Donald J. Trump. _

_Devlin Barrett [[link removed]] covers
the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times._

_William K. Rashbaum
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covering municipal and political corruption, the courts and broader
law enforcement topics in New York._

* Sean C. Dunn
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* sandwich
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* Protest
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* Grand Jury
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