Additional Coverage:
- ‘It smelled of onions and mustard,’ Border Patrol officer hit by sandwich says as trial begins (cnn.com)
DC Man on Trial for Sandwich-Throwing Incident Amidst Federal Troop Deployment
Washington D.C. – The federal trial of Sean Dunn, accused of throwing a sub-style sandwich at a Border Patrol officer this summer, commenced Tuesday with his defense attorney, Julia Gatto, admitting, “He did it. He threw the sandwich.”
However, Gatto argued that the U.S. government “turned that moment, a thrown sandwich, into a criminal case. A federal criminal case charging a federal criminal offense.”
This peculiar case has become a symbolic flashpoint in the local resistance against the Trump administration’s deployment of federal agents to Washington D.C. The sandwich-throwing incident even sparked a wave of spray-painted posters across the capital, transforming the act into a moment of defiance.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Border Patrol Officer Greg Lairmore testified about the encounter, stating that Dunn “became really irritated and started yelling obscenities” before launching “a subway style sandwich at me that struck me in the chest.” Lairmore vividly recalled the “onions and mustard” smell and how the sandwich “exploded all over my chest.”
Dunn’s other attorney, Sabrina Shroff, challenged Lairmore’s account, presenting a photo of the still-wrapped sandwich on the ground. She pressed the officer, asking, “Can you tell if it’s a turkey sandwich?
Lettuce? Tomatoes?”
Lairmore admitted he couldn’t identify the ingredients from the photo but maintained he had mustard stains and sandwich pieces on his uniform and radio equipment. He also noted that the sandwich in the picture appeared “bent and out of shape.”
Adding a touch of levity to the courtroom, Lairmore revealed that colleagues had given him gag gifts related to the incident, including a plush sandwich and a patch emblazoned with “felony footlong.” He chuckled while describing putting the stuffed sandwich on his office shelf.
Lairmore testified that prior to the incident, Dunn, after leaving a Subway restaurant, became “red-faced and enraged,” calling officers “fascist” and other expletives. Lairmore asserted he did not respond, acknowledging Dunn’s “constitutional right to express his opinion.”
Body-worn camera footage played for the jury also showed Dunn telling an officer, “I was trying to draw them away from where they were. I succeeded.”
With the basic facts of the sandwich toss undisputed, the jury’s task is to determine whether the act constitutes misdemeanor assault. Assistant U.S.
Attorney John Parron emphasized in his opening statements, “Look, I understand you may all have views of the federal law enforcement presence in DC… But respectfully, that’s not what this case is about.
This case is about the fact that you can’t go around throwing stuff at people when you’re mad.” Parron concluded that Dunn “forcibly assaulted him.”
Gatto countered, arguing that the sandwich was merely “an exclamation mark at the end of a verbal outburst” from Dunn, who was upset by the federal presence and the Trump administration’s immigration policies. She stated Dunn believed “recent immigration enforcement is racist” and viewed the federal law enforcement surge as “fascism.” Regarding the charge, Gatto stressed the standard of “bodily injury,” asserting that the prosecution would not prove “beyond a reasonable doubt the conduct was forcible.”
Presiding Judge Carl Nichols, who light-heartedly called this the “simplest case” in history, will oversee the trial’s continuation on Wednesday. The proceedings follow a recent acquittal of another D.C. resident charged with assault for allegedly moving her knee towards an officer while being restrained after filming immigration-related arrests.