Jury finds DC ‘sandwich guy’ not guilty of misdemeanor assault

WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal jury Thursday declined to convict a District man who was charged with assault after throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent during President Donald Trump’s crime emergency in August.

Sean Dunn, a former Department of Justice staffer, was charged with a misdemeanor assault charge after a grand jury rejected U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro’s effort to indict Dunn on felony assault charges.

Better known as “sandwich guy,” Dunn was filmed shouting at federal agents and Metro Transit Police officers outside a Subway store near U Street and 14th St. NW, a popular nightlife area of D.C., on Aug. 10.

Videos of the incident went viral as District residents upset over Trump’s federal takeover of the city and deployment of federal law enforcement began lionizing Dunn as a symbol of resistance.

Banksy-like portraits depicting Dunn throwing the sandwich have become a familiar sight throughout the District, with posters plastered in alleyways and stickers stuck on light poles.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Dunn approached the officers shouting, “Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” After approximately seven minutes, Dunn threw his Subway sandwich at CBP agent Gregory Lairmore and hit him in the chest.

Thursday’s verdict follows a brief trial before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee who signaled at jury selection Monday that he expected the case to be resolved quickly “because it’s the simplest case in the world.”

Speaking outside the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in downtown D.C., Dunn expressed gratitude for the support he’d received from District residents since his indictment and said he was relieved to be “moving forward with my life.”

“Let us not forget that the great seal of the United States says, ‘Out of many, one,’” Dunn said. “You all have a right to live a life that is free.”

In an emailed statement, Pirro said she accepted the jury’s verdict because “that is the system in which we function.”

“However, law enforcement should never be subjected to assault, no matter how ‘minor,’” Pirro said. “Even children know when they are angry, they are not allowed to throw objects at one another.”

Sabrina Shroff, Dunn’s defense attorney, said in her closing arguments Wednesday that her client’s prosecution was clearly overblown and argued that Lairmore could not have taken Dunn’s actions as truly threatening.

Shroff highlighted the fact Lairmore’s colleagues gifted him a plush toy sandwich, which he displayed in his office, and that he placed a sticker on his lunchbox depicting Dunn holding the sandwich above his head, above the words “Felony Footlong.”

“This case, ladies and gentlemen, is about a sandwich,” Shroff said. “A sandwich that landed intact, still in its Subway wrapping.”

Lairmore described the incident from the witness stand Tuesday, testifying he could feel the impact of the sandwich through his ballistic vest and that it “exploded all over my uniform,” noting he could “smell the onions and the mustard.”

Dunn declined to testify on his behalf at trial.

In the government’s closing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo urged the jury to find Dunn guilty and said his conduct created a “seven-minute disturbance” that distracted the officers and pulled them from their post.

“This case is not about strong opinions, it’s not about immigration, it’s not about the First Amendment,” DiLorenzo said. “It’s about someone who crossed the line.”

He further urged the jury to set aside their opinions on Trump’s crime emergency and the increased federal law enforcement presence and rule solely on Dunn’s conduct.

Nichols instructed the jury that, to convict Dunn of the misdemeanor assault charge, they would have to find he acted forcibly and generated a “reasonable apprehension of bodily harm.”

Dunn’s non-guilty verdict concludes the first among a series of cases the U.S. Attorney’s Office brought against individuals arrested amid Trump’s federal takeover of D.C., in which grand juries also rejected the more serious charges sought against those defendants.

One defendant, Nathalie Rose Jones, had her case dismissed outright after grand jurors declined to approve an indictment charging the Indiana woman with felony charges of threatening to kill the president on social media.

Pirro slammed the grand jurors in Dunn’s case while appearing on “Fox News Sunday” on Aug. 31, asserting that they “live in Georgetown in in Northwest [D.C.] or in some of these better areas” and thus, “they don’t see the reality of crime.”

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