Stuckart released from jail as Spokane Police Department requests felony charges after arrest at immigration protest

Former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart was released from the Spokane County Jail early Thursday morning after he sparked an hourslong immigration protest that grew into about a thousand supporters and ended only after police fired smoke cannisters and the mayor declared a 9:30 p.m. curfew.

In an interview Thursday morning, Stuckart maintained his belief that 21-year-old Cesar Alexander Alvarez Perez and Joswar Slater Rodriguez Torres were detained illegally, and said he remains committed to seeing them return to the Inland Northwest.

“I started sitting in front of the ICE bus yesterday for the purpose of releasing Cesar and Joswar,” Stuckart said. “I didn’t know what other option I had when they illegally detained them.”

Stuckart has since confirmed the two are being held in a detention facility in Tacoma. He said he is working to raise funding to cover the costs of their legal representation, and added that Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office has reached out to offer support.

Of the 30 or so people arrested during the demonstration, at least two protesters who joined Stuckart to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from busing two men detained because of their immigration status spent the night in jail after police alleged they participated in unlawful imprisonments (a felony) by physically stopping the agents from leaving their operations base in the Broadview Dairy Building on the 400 block of East Cataldo Avenue.

Like Stuckart, Justice Forral, an activist with Spokane Community Against Racism, and Erin Lang, a local artist, also face possible charges of failing to disperse.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said protesters who threw recently deployed smoke canisters back at law enforcement could also face felony assault charges once identified.

The accusations are recommendations by police, but could change when the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office vets the cases. The office could not be reached for comment Thursday.

On Thursday, the large turnout at a court appearance for Forral and Lang necessitated a change of venue after the small hearing room they were scheduled to appear in ran out of seating. Members of the public sat on the ground, in the jury box and just about any other available space even after moving to a larger courtroom.

Forral and Lang were released without having to post bail under the condition they do not return to the ICE offices. Neither has a criminal history, according to court records.

Attorney Sarah Freedman represented both on Wednesday and plans to do so moving forward with assistance from fellow Spokane lawyer Morgan Maxey, the grandson of the late Carl Maxey and a member of the family’s firm, Maxey Law Office.

Maxey has offered his services to the more than 30 protesters arrested and worked with Freedman through the night to identify, visit with and help see to the release of those detained.

“It was entirely guesswork based on bond amount, because the inmate roster system really isn’t intuitive,” Freedman recalled of her late night.

The unlawful imprisonment charges likely stem from allegations that Forral and Lang put benches and Lime scooters to create barriers in front of a gated parking lot for the federal workers.

Freedman and Maxey both expressed surprise at the seriousness of the charges. Most people taken into custody Wednesday were suspected of failing to disperse.

“This seems like a slightly dramatic reaction, given that the normal context of this type of charge is somebody being locked in a room against their own free will, being confined to a space, whereas here we’re all on the public areas, public streets,” Maxey said. “It’s not like they’re being confined, but more so just temporarily prevented from going one direction.”

The demonstration began when Stuckart called for assistance in protesting the detainment of two young men seeking asylum earlier that day.

“I just feel like (the law firm’s) services are important to provide, just because people are standing up for their First Amendment right, which is free speech, freedom to gather, especially in a public place, there’s really no restriction there,” Maxey said.

Stuckart started his protest around 2 p.m. and was among those peacefully detained almost six hours later after he and a group formed a human chain around a bus to prevent it from being used to transport Alvarez Perez, who is seeking asylum from Venezuela, and Rodriguez Torres, a Colombian national, to an ICE detainment facility in Tacoma.

Stuckart said Alvarez Perez and Rodriguez Torres were taken into custody earlier that morning during what he called a “check-in” with federal officials. The two were in the United States on work visas and had full-time employment at the Walmart in Airway Heights until Friday, when their “work permits were revoked,” he said.

Stuckart became Alvarez Perez’s legal guardian three weeks ago as part of a call from Latinos en Spokane to assist vulnerable juveniles, but he said federal officials would not allow him to accompany Alvarez Perez to his appointment.

He estimated both were detained in less than 10 minutes from when they went back, and said he was not given a reason as to why.

“And each of them has a stack of legal paperwork at least 2 inches thick, with all their asylum paperwork and their guardianship paperwork, and they clearly didn’t look at it,” Stuckart said Wednesday. “They just said, ‘We’re detaining them.’ ”

By 4 p.m., a few hundred people had gathered at the facility, toting signs, participating in chants and sitting in a row in front of the doors to a sprinter bus parked in front of the facility believed to be the mode of transport to Tacoma. Protesters deflated the tires, and a masked person spray-painted the driver side windshield and tightly parked a pair of cars in front and in back of the bus.

After police arrived hours later at about 6:30 p.m., many in that initial group sitting in front of the bus relocated to a red van that showed up and peacefully formed a human chain. They were arrested one by one.

Stuckart said he understands some may not agree with his manner of protest Wednesday, but emphasized that he was trying to do what was in his power to assist someone he cares about.

“You only have so much you can do if you’re doing everything legally right,” Stuckart said. “You’re doing everything legally right, and they break those laws and illegally detain people. What other option do you have other than civil disobedience? You don’t.”

Spokesman-Review reporter Elena Perry contributed to this report.