A judge in Minneapolis on Tuesday sharply criticized federal prosecutors and ICE after an agent falsely accused an attorney of helping a defendant escape.
In a rare move, Magistrate Judge David Schultz apologized to public defender Matthew Deates on behalf of the U.S. government and said he would order prosecutors to retract a memo that contains the false accusation.
Earlier this year, Deates was assigned to represent Ezequiel De Jesus Portillo Rodriguez, who’s charged in Minnesota with felony reentry for returning to the United States after his deportation to El Salvador. ICE arrested Portillo Rodriguez in California in August 2025. He was jailed for more than six months until a federal judge in Sacramento ordered him freed and prohibited ICE from re-arresting him.
Portillo Rodriguez traveled to Minneapolis for an April
Portillo Rodriguez traveled to Minneapolis for an April 28 court hearing, where he pleaded not guilty to the reentry charge. Schultz ordered him freed and prosecutors did not object.
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After the hearing, Deates helped his client find lunch and walked with him to the light rail station so he could start his return trip to California, in line with the court orders.
What Deates didn’t know at the time —
What Deates didn’t know at the time — later explained in an Oct. 1 court filing — was that an ICE agent and two U.S. marshals were following him and his client in an unsuccessful effort to arrest Portillo Rodriguez.
In a memo the next day, ICE agent Michael J. O’Neal wrote Portillo Rodriguez “was aided and abetted from immigration arrest by assistant public defender Matthew Deates.”
The memo may never have seen the light of day, but prosecutors included it in a batch of discovery materials they sent to defense attorneys for 15 anti-ICE activists charged in a sprawling conspiracy case. Fearing damage to his professional reputation, Deates, through his attorney Chris Madel, demanded that prosecutors correct the record.
In their Sept. 25 response, U.S
In their Sept. 25 response, U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen and assistant U.S. attorney Tory Sailer wrote that O’Neal’s memo “does not reflect the position of the United States Attorney’s Office” but they stopped short of acknowledging that the allegations against Deates are untrue.
“What was written about Matt Deates was not only false, not only unjustified, not only slop,” Madel said at the Tuesday hearing. “Our system of justice rests on a promise to all of us, that if the government is going to accuse us of a crime, they offer evidence to back it up.”
Deates has no connection to the Minnesota 15 case and does not represent any of the defendants. At the hearing, Sailer said prosecutors included the memo in the discovery materials because “there was confusion about Agent O’Neal.”
Sailer said one of the Minnesota 15 defendants
Sailer said one of the Minnesota 15 defendants allegedly obstructed an agent named Witt from leaving the St. Paul federal courthouse earlier this year. A second agent mistook Witt for O’Neal, which in turn led to the discovery mix-up.
“It was an oversight by our office,” Sailer said. “It should not have gone out. It’s a tad embarrassing that I’m up here explaining.”
Sailer added that Deates is not under investigation but said the U.S. Attorney’s Office would not make a determination whether he aided Portillo Rodriguez’s escape as O’Neal had alleged.
Do you have any personal knowledge of any
“Do you have any personal knowledge of any information that Mr. Deates could even be arguably accused of aiding and abetting an escape from arrest?” Schultz asked.
“No,” Sailer replied.
“It is the position of our office that we do not agree with the memo, but I won’t go as far as to say I agree with the facts,” he added later.
Schultz said the government’s position puts Deates, whom he called “an exemplary lawyer,” under a shadow and offers him no way to clear his name.
I asked them to do what was right,
“I asked them to do what was right,” Madel said. “At every turn, they’ve chosen the dark path.”
Schultz said he would order prosecutors to destroy all copies of the O’Neal memo and replace them with a version that redacts Deates’ name. However the judge said he’s unsure if he has the authority to grant Deates’ request for a legal finding that he did not violate the law.
But Schultz was clear about what he would do in the event Deates is ever charged.
If I were on criminal duty and this
“If I were on criminal duty and this were presented to me as a complaint, I have no doubt that I would decline to sign it,” Schultz said. “On the face of the memo, it’s clear that Mr. Deates did not and could not have committed any crime.”
Schiltz also noted that Deates never received an apology from anyone in a position of authority so he offered one of his own.
“I apologize to you,” Schultz said. “This should not have happened. I think it’s outrageous that agents of the United States government would follow a federal defender who is actually in the act of making sure that his client complies with a court order.”
