A Colombian national was indicted this past Wednesday for the alleged assault of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. Yefferson Josue Pinzon Suarez, 31, faces a single felony count in the indictment handed down by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis. The case against Pinzon Suarez springs from an event that occurred when an immigration judge had ordered his removal from the United States back in March.
Records indicate that on June 20th, Suarez was transferred from the St. Louis County Jail to the Robert A. Young Federal Building. It was during this time that the indictment claims he became uncooperative during a fingerprinting procedure. Suarez is accused of biting a deportation officer’s forearm and striking him in the chest. According to a motion filed in the case, this incident was significant enough to push for Pinzon Suarez to be held in jail until trial. The motion was detailed in a statement by the Department of Justice.
Before his arrest, Pinzon Suarez resided in Maryland Heights. It is of note that an indictment is not an indication of guilt; it is a formal accusation that initiates a judicial process. The Department of Justice emphasizes that every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law…