Federal prosecutors seek retrial of humanitarian volunteer Scott Warren
TUCSON — Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona announced Tuesday they will seek a retrial of humanitarian-aid volunteer Scott Warren after his felony trial ended in a hung jury in June.
Anna Wright, an assistant U.S. attorney, said in Tucson federal court that the government would dismiss one count of conspiracy to transport or shield, but it would seek a retrial on two counts of harboring an undocumented immigrant.
The charges stem from Warren’s arrest in January 2018 in Ajo, at a building known as “the Barn,” which is used by humanitarian groups as a staging area to drop off water and supplies for migrants in the Arizona desert.
Border Patrol agents arrested Warren, a volunteer with humanitarian-aid group No More Deaths, along with two undocumented migrants after setting up surveillance outside the Barn.
A jury was unable to reach a verdict last month after an eight-day trial and four days of deliberations, prompting U.S. District Judge Raner Collins to declare a mistrial.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse after Tuesday’s hearing, Warren said he’s “more prepared than ever” to defend himself in court once again, but he questioned the U.S. government’s motives in pursuing a second trial against him.
“While I do not know what the government has hoped to accomplish here, I do know what the effect of this has been and will continue to be,” he said. “A raising of public consciousness; a greater awareness of the humanitarian crisis at the borderlands; more volunteers who want to stand in solidarity with migrants; border residents stiffened up in their resistance to the militarization of our communities, and a flood of water into the desert when it’s most needed.”
U.S. prosecutors also announced a plea offer to Warren. The offer requires Warren to plead guilty to a misdemeanor of aiding and abetting with a sentence of time served. If convicted of the more serious felony charges for harboring, Warren could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Collins set the start of the second trial for Nov. 12, after Warren’s defense attorney Greg Kuykendall asked for more time to prepare for the second trial, amid other commitments.
Kuykendall told Collins that one of the delays is that he’s attempting to subpoena Irineo Mujica for the second trial. But he said he might need more time because Mujica spent equal amounts of time in Mexico and the U.S.
Mujica, a Phoenix-based migrant rights advocate who runs a shelter in neighboring Sonoyta, Mexico, loomed large during the eight-day trial against Warren in June.
Prosecutors accused Mujica — although he was never formally indicted — of conspiring with Warren to shelter two Central American migrants, Kristian Perez-Villanueva and Jose SacariaGoday, at the Barn after the migrants crossed the border illegally. Warren and Mujica were also accused of conspiring to help the migrants continue their journey north.
Kuykendall argued during the trial that there was never such an agreement. He added that both men did communicate regularly but to coordinate visits to Mujica’s shelter, as well as to follow up on reports of missing migrants in the desert west of Ajo.
During Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors gave Warren 10 days, before the start of the second trial, to decide whether to take the plea deal they offered him.
“The federal government prioritizing prosecution of life-saving humanitarian aid work in a crisis where right now children are in cages, and are dying in Border Patrol custody, and people are dying of heat exposure, is completely unconscionable,” Catherine Gaffney, a No More Deaths volunteer, said after the hearing.
The president of the service committee for the Unitarian Universalist Church, No More Deaths’ religious affiliate, also condemned the government’s decision to seek a retrial against Warren.