No, a federal judge wasn't arrested for ruling in immigrant gun possession case | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Military arrested federal judge for ruling on migrant’s Second Amendment case

A March 20 story from Real Raw News (direct link, archive link) claims the military arrested a federal judge for her ruling on a case.

“On March 19, U.S. Navy Jag investigators arrested on treason charges U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Coleman of the Northern District of Illinois, following her de facto ruling that allows illegal immigrants, including felons, to own firearms on U.S. soil,” reads the article.

The article was shared more than 200 times in nine days, according to the social media analytics tool CrowdTangle.

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Our rating: False

Clear evidence shows Coleman has not been arrested. Court documents and a spokesperson both indicate she continues to preside over cases.

Immigrant in case had no criminal history with a firearm

The Real Raw News post refers to an immigrant named Heriberto Carbajal-Flores who fired seven shots with a handgun while guarding a business amid riots that followed George Floyd's death in June 2020. He was arrested on the charge of possessing a firearm while being in the U.S. illegally, according to court documents.

Court documents from March 8 show Coleman granted Carbajal-Flores’ motion to dismiss the charge, ruling a federal law that prohibits people in the U.S. illegally from possessing guns "violates the Second Amendment as applied to Carbajal-Flores." She also wrote that he had no criminal history of improper use of a weapon, and the court did not find that he posed a risk to public safety.

But nothing credible shows Coleman was arrested for her ruling. Thomas Bruton, Coleman's clerk, told USA TODAY the claim was “offensive and demonstrably false.”

Bruton pointed to court documents showing Coleman has been working past her purported March 19 arrest date. There are publicly available documents from hearings Coleman presided over on March 20 and March 25.

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Real Raw News is a website that publishes fabricated stories, many of which USA TODAY has debunked. A disclaimer on the site’s “About Us” page states it “contains humor, parody and satire.” The notice, however, is not included in the website’s articles.

Real Raw News could not be reached for comment.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Judge Sharon Coleman not arrested for immigrant's case | Fact check