A judge must decide if the heave of a sandwich constitutes assault in a surreal trial that began in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.
In August, former DOJ employee Sean C. Dunn threw a Subway sandwich at ICE agent Gregory Lairmore while protesting the agency’s activity in the D.C. area. Viral video of the incident shows Dunn deliberately chucking his sandwich at an ICE agent’s chest and then running away from the agents.
The Department of Justice has tried and so far failed to convict Dunn on any crimes, though they really want to. Weeks after the incident, a panel of 23 citizens rejected demands from prosecutors working for Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C., to indict Dunn with felony charges for the hoagie heave.
Prosecutors are now trying to charge Dunn with misdemeanor assault.
“No matter who you are, you can’t just go around throwing stuff at people because you’re mad,” said prosecutor John Parron in his opening statement Tuesday.
The prosecution’s strongest argument in the case is emphasizing that Dunn knowingly interfered with the officers’ duty by forcing them to arrest him over the sandwich. Dunn said in footage from the police station taken the night of his arrest, “I wanted to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”
Dunn’s defense lawyer, Julia Gatto, offered a call to common sense in her opening statement. “He did it, he threw the sandwich,” she said. “You’re not going to be asked if you feel bad for the agent who took a sandwich to the chest. You’re going to be asked whether what happened that night is a federal crime.”
Dunn’s defense appears to be building the case that the sandwich toss was nothing more than a minor annoyance for Lairmore and his fellow officers. The defense notes that Lairmore received “gag gifts,” such as a sandwich-shaped plushie, illustrating that ICE did not seriously believe the sandwich toss harmed the officer’s well-being.
Dunn was said to be decrying the “militarization and takeover of law enforcement in Washington” at the time of the incident. Gatto described the sandwich heave as a “punctuation mark” that concluded Dunn’s impassioned speech.
“It is a punctuation,” Ms. Gatto said. “It is an exclamation mark at the end of a verbal outburst.”
The trial has become a small internet sensation thanks to live-tweet reporting from Lawfare senior editor Molly Roberts, which paints a surreal picture of the scene in the courtroom.
One particularly popular post from Tuesday’s proceedings reads: “The officer Sandwich Guy is charged with assaulting testifies that he could feel the impact of the sandwich through his ballistic vest, and it ‘exploded all over my uniform.’ He says he could ‘smell the onions and the mustard.’”
The quote has been ruthlessly mocked online by commenters who were gobsmacked that such a point was even being debated in a court of law.
If convicted, Dunn would face a maximum of six months in jail and a $1000 fine.
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