A Hennepin County judge barred federal immigration agent Gregory D. Morgan Jr. from possessing firearms and leaving the country while his criminal case proceeds.
The conditions were ordered at Morgan’s first court appearance Thursday on felony charges that he pointed a gun at a Minnesota motorist and passenger earlier this year. Morgan, 35, also can’t contact any potential witnesses in the case, including his then-work partner, who was with him during the incident.
Morgan, who posted a $100,000 bail Thursday after turning himself in, could post a $200,000 bail with no conditions in order to keep his firearm. Morgan’s attorney, Ryan Pacyga, said he wasn’t sure if Morgan would pursue that option.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office charged Morgan, a resident of Temple Hills, Maryland, in April with first- and second-degree assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people on Highway 62 near the Portland Avenue exit.
Morgan, dressed in a grey blazer, black shirt and black tie, was silent in court Thursday and at a press conference afterwards. He occasionally nodded as Pacyga spoke at the press conference.
“He’s a human being,” Pacyga said about Morgan. “He is not a caricature. He is not a headline. He is not ICE itself.”
Pacyga plans to request transferring the case to federal court, and said he is waiting for evidence from the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, including the names of the two alleged victims. He declined to comment on the legal reasoning behind his preference for federal court.
The county attorney’s office declined to speak substantively about the case.
“Today’s first appearance is a critical step in our effort to seek accountability, and we are prepared for the different paths this case may take,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a prepared statement.
The incident occurred while Morgan was in Minnesota working as part of Operation Metro Surge, the largest immigration enforcement effort in U.S. history. Morgan remains employed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and is not on administrative leave, Pacyga said.
During Morgan’s hearing, Pacyga unsuccessfully argued that his client should be allowed to possess a firearm during work hours when required.
“I don’t want him to have to be out of a job for this abbreviated incident,” Pacyga told the court.
But Hennepin County District Court Judge Paul Scoggin said that he has seen many law enforcement officers in court over the years, and, “I always get the argument that they can’t work.”
“I have a long track record of restricting firearm access when a felony-like crime occurs,” Scoggin said. “I intend to follow that in this case.”
After the hearing, Pacyga told reporters that he wasn’t sure how the firearm restriction would impact Morgan’s day-to-day work for ICE.
Scoggin also imposed a waiver of extradition, which requires Morgan to attend court hearings in person in his case even if he’s living in another state.
Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Morgan Kunz pushed for the waiver during the hearing.
“We are concerned that the federal government will reassign a defendant to another state or otherwise prevent the state of Minnesota from seeking justice in this case,” Kunz said, noting that this is happening in other cases.
Pacyga criticized Kunz’s comments about other cases as “political,” and stressed that Morgan has been cooperating with the prosecution.
According to the criminal complaint: Morgan was driving east on Hwy. 62 in a rented black SUV on Feb. 5 when another driver briefly cut him off, not knowing he was an ICE agent.
Traffic camera footage from the Minnesota State Patrol showed the victims’ car briefly veering onto the shoulder but quickly returning to its lane. Morgan then had an opportunity to merge or pass it, but instead, he illegally drove onto the shoulder and positioned his SUV next to the car.
Morgan then allegedly pulled a gun on two people in the other car.
“Driving while pointing a weapon out of your moving vehicle at the victims who were in another moving vehicle could have led to yet another disastrous incident in a community that has already suffered too many,” Moriarty said in a press conference last month.
Pacyga addressed the charges in a news conference Thursday shortly before Morgan posted bond. Pacyga argued that Morgan feared for his life during the incident. The other vehicle swerved “aggressively,” and Morgan “did not know what the intention was,” Pacyga said.
“It happened fast, it was alarming and it happened during an extraordinarily tense time in our Twin Cities community,” Pacyga said.
He added that there’s “much more to this story than a brief video clip.”
Pacyga characterized Morgan as an 8-year law enforcement veteran who has spent “much of his life serving others, including vulnerable people.” Morgan has no criminal record, he added.
Morgan, who lives and is stationed in the east coast, was ordered to come to Minneapolis for Operation Metro Surge as a condition of his employment, according to Pacyga. When Moriarty filed the charges in April, her office included a nationwide arrest warrant for Morgan.
Pacyga said Morgan has been cooperating with the process, and that he had been in touch with the county attorney’s office for weeks to turn Morgan in to avoid an arrest and extradition.
Morgan’s next court hearing is scheduled for June 29 at 9:00 a.m.
