A D.C. jury has acquitted a gay man accused of assault after he threw a Subway footlong at a federal agent during President Trump’s short-lived federal enforcement “takeover” of Washington last summer.
As part of the “takeover,” Trump deployed agents from multiple federal law enforcement agencies, along with National Guard troops, to patrol D.C. streets, ostensibly to deter crime. Among them were Customs and Border Protection agents, who carried out traffic stops aimed at rounding up undocumented migrants.
Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, was captured on video yelling at a Customs and Border Protection agent near a traffic stop on 14th Street NW. The footage shows him jumping up and down, throwing the sandwich, and then trying to flee on foot. The August 10 confrontation quickly went viral on social media.
A witness who filmed the encounter claimed Dunn was intoxicated, though that was never confirmed.
According to The Washington Post, Dunn — who was charged with a felony and fired from his job as a Department of Justice paralegal — said he acted out of protest against fascism and the Trump administration’s anti-migrant policies.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, now led by Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, first sought a felony assault indictment against Dunn, but a D.C. grand jury refused. Prosecutors later downgraded the charge to misdemeanor assault.
During the two-day trial, prosecutors alleged that Dunn threw the sandwich at a federal officer “at point-blank range.” They called two witnesses: Gregory Lairmore, the Customs and Border Protection agent who was hit, and a Metro Transit Police detective who witnessed the incident.
Jurors viewed video of the incident, the ensuing foot chase, and Dunn’s post-arrest statements, in which he admitted, “I did it. I threw a sandwich. I did it to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”
On the stand, Lairmore testified that he ignored Dunn’s shouting until he felt the sandwich hit his bulletproof vest.
“The sandwich kind of exploded all over my uniform,” Lairmore testified. “It smelled of onions and mustard.”
Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff showed jurors a photo of the sandwich, still wrapped, lying on the ground, and pressed Lairmore on whether it had really “exploded.” Lairmore responded that part of the sub was visible in the image, adding, “I had mustard and condiments on my uniform, and an onion hanging from my radio antenna that night.”
During closing arguments, Shroff — who called no witnesses for the defense — questioned whether Lairmore had truly felt threatened. She noted that his co-workers gave him a plush toy sandwich as a gag gift, which he kept on his office shelf, and an insignia for his lunchbox depicting Dunn holding a hoagie under the words “Felony Footlong.”
“They’re joking about it with each other, and they’re joking about it with Agent Lairmore,” she told jurors. “Why? Because they think it’s funny.”
She added that Lairmore was “heavily armed” and wearing a bulletproof vest, which she said would easily protect him from a sandwich — hardly as lethal as a bullet.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael DiLorenzo urged jurors to put aside any feelings about Trump’s law enforcement surge or immigration policies — which polls show most D.C. residents oppose — and convict Dunn.
“This case isn’t about strong opinions,” DiLorenzo said. “It’s not about immigration. It’s not about the First Amendment. It’s about someone who crossed the line.”
Judge Carl Nichols instructed the jury that to convict Dunn on the misdemeanor charge, they would have to find he acted forcibly and caused a “reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm.”
After seven hours of deliberation over two days, the jury found Dunn not guilty.
The verdict was among the more high-profile setbacks for Pirro’s push to stiffen penalties against those arrested while protesting the federal “takeover.” In a similar case last month, a jury acquitted Sydney Reid, a D.C. woman charged with misdemeanor assault after a rowdy protest of an immigration-related arrest at the D.C. Jail.
Dunn — who became immortalized in D.C. mural art and online memes showing him hoisting the sandwich, a symbol of anti-Trump resistance in the city — told reporters he was “relieved” and ready to move on with his life after the verdict.
“I am so happy that justice prevails in spite of everything happening,” he said. “That night I believe I was protecting the rights of immigrants.”
In a historic move, Michael J. O'Loughlin, an award-winning journalist and gay man, has been named executive editor of the National Catholic Reporter, the nation's leading independent Catholic news organization.
A New England-based journalist, O'Loughlin has amassed more than 15 years of experience covering religion as a reporter, editor, podcast host, and author. For the past nine years, he has worked at America Media, the Jesuit news and commentary outlet, serving seven years as national correspondent and most recently as founding executive director of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic news site.
José Rolón, a gay father and popular social media influencer known as @nycgaydad, has filed a defamation lawsuit against right-wing commentator Stew Peters, who falsely accused him of "criminal sexual conduct" involving his three young children.
Rolón, who has more than 150,000 followers on Instagram and over 500,000 on TikTok, says he was barraged with death threats and vile messages after Peters attacked him online for sharing videos about his life as a single gay dad.
As reported by The Advocate, Rolón's legal team filed a five-count lawsuit in Kings County Supreme Court accusing Peters of defamation and bias-related intimidation under New York's Civil Rights Law, citing multiple false statements made against him.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill requiring transgender Texans to use bathrooms and other facilities in public buildings that match their assigned sex at birth.
The Republican-backed law, passed largely along party lines, applies to government-owned buildings, including public schools and universities. In addition to bathrooms, it mandates sex-segregated locker rooms, changing rooms, and shower rooms, which the law defines as "multi-occupancy private spaces."
Exceptions apply to parents, guardians, and caretakers of the opposite sex, as well as law enforcement, emergency responders, and custodial staff entering for official purposes, reports The Hill.
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