Judge orders mental health evaluation, travel restrictions for Metro Surge protester

Judge Doug Micko sided with Justice Department prosecutors from the Trump administration during a federal court hearing in St. Paul last Wednesday, July 22, placing a Cities Church protester on probation, restricting his travel to Pennsylvania, ordering a mental health assessment and suspending his access to firearms.

U.S. Army veteran Ian Davis Austin is one of 40 people charged by federal prosecutors under the FACE Act, including journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon, after demonstrators interrupted a Sunday service on Jan. 18, questioning Pastor David Easterwood over his role as St. Paul ICE field director during Operation Metro Surge.

Austin has been arrested four times since he began protesting Operation Metro Surge. He was arrested Jan. 16 at the federal Whipple ICE detention center and released without charges. He was arrested again at Whipple on Jan. 30, after being indicted on FACE Act charges. Last spring he was arrested twice at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, N.J., during a hunger strike.

“We now have presented material evidence that the conditions of release are no longer adequate,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Neville Hedley told Micko. “The current conditions of release don’t address public safety.”

Hedley submitted two copies of body camera footage obtained from local New Jersey police, though the footage was not played in the courtroom. “One of the body cameras shows Mr. Austin in the middle of a very busy intersection,” Hedley said, prompting laughter from the gallery. Hedley argued the footage showed “an inability to disengage” during Austin’s conduct at ICE detention center protests.

Defense attorney Sarah Gad told the court that Austin had faced two charges stemming from the Newark arrest, endangering another person and disorderly conduct, and that the endangerment charge had since been dropped, leaving only the disorderly conduct charge pending. Gad argued the new travel restrictions infringe on his First Amendment rights. “This is not a license for the government to throw a blanket slate of boilerplate conditions,” Gad said, calling it short-sighted to impose sweeping conditions over a pending disorderly conduct case.

A bail report reportedly detailed Austin’s alcohol and drug use following trauma sustained during six deployments to Afghanistan. Gad called the government’s request for court-mandated drug and alcohol testing irrelevant to the disorderly conduct charge. “I think I understand your point,” Micko told Gad.

Outside the courthouse, fellow activists and organizers said the ruling reflected a broader pattern of prosecutors and the court weaponizing protesters’ trauma and mental health histories against them.

Jules Langlois said the judge’s decision to order a mental health evaluation, despite Austin’s ongoing treatment, amounted to punishing him for his military service.

“What we see here is the criminalization of mental health. They didn’t take the charges into account because the charges were pending. The charges and the other charge was dropped. So Ian was is facing one pending charge in New Jersey, despite the other charge being dropped,” Langlois said. “This judge used that as an opportunity to bring up his history of mental illness as a result of being exposed to extensive trauma in the military and ordered that he go through a mental health assessment, despite the fact that he’s already in extensive therapy for PTSD and has never missed an appointment.”

Monique Cullars-Doty questioned the credibility of the prosecution’s account of Austin’s conduct and said the description of a busy intersection was familiar to any longtime protester.

“So I’m hearing, because people must have seen it, because a lot of people just bust out laughing when they said a busy intersection. I have stood and protested in many busy intersections, and they claim that there were four officers in this busy intersection. Like, why do you have four officers in an intersection,” Cullars-Doty said. She added that prosecutors’ focus on Austin’s drinking ignored the broader context of his service. “They’re saying he, you know, had a drinking problem. Every veteran that I know, they talk about drinking when they’re in, and what they’ve seen and done. They may drink when they get out.”

Emily Phillips, who said she has been present at protests outside Delaney Hall, disputed the characterization of Austin’s conduct and said prosecutors singled him out simply for approaching officers to ask questions. “You’re not allowed to walk up and ask police officers questions. That’s something that they’re going to hold against you in court. That blew my mind,” Phillips said.

William “Da Woke Farmer” Kelly said Austin’s case echoes his own experience on federal probation. “Ian didn’t commit a crime in New Jersey. He didn’t commit a crime in a church that day. He practiced his First Amendment right,” Kelly said.

Christina Neighbors, a U.S. Navy veteran, said the case reflects a betrayal of veterans who speak out after experiencing trauma or abuse in the military. “So the fact that now that’s being weaponized back against him, that our mental health is being monitored, that it’s no longer a safe place for us, I think is just a travesty,” Neighbors said.

Of the original 40 people charged, at least one has since had her charges dropped entirely: Heather Danae Lewis, a Brooklyn Park woman who was mistakenly identified as part of the protest group despite not having taken part in the demonstration, per court records.

Austin’s case is one of 39 pending FACE Act prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 18 church demonstration, part of a broader wave of federal charges against protesters who have organized against Operation Metro Surge and ICE detention practices across the country.

Clint Combs is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.