ICE agent Christian Castro released from Minnesota state custody, pleads not guilty in federal court

Christian Castro, an ICE agent who shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis through a door during a January car chase in north Minneapolis, was released on conditional bail from Hennepin County Jail Thursday and pleaded not guilty Friday to six federal counts of making false statements to FBI investigators. He faces separate state charges of second-degree assault and falsely reporting a crime.

Castro had told the FBI that Sosa-Celis and another man assaulted him with a broom and snow shovel before he opened fire; charges against the two men based on that account were dropped after surveillance footage contradicted it. An assistant U.S. attorney pursuing stronger federal civil rights charges was ordered by Justice Department officials in Washington to downgrade them and was later fired, according to CBS News.

Castro was released on $200,000 bail with conditions including electronic monitoring and surrendering his passport once federal authorities return it; Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty expects him to seek to move the state case to federal court.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.