A legal filing submitted in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Tuesday revealed the alleged illegal alien smuggler retained new attorneys, who requested the court’s permission to dismiss the public defenders who represented Abrego Garcia during his initial appearance in court and subsequent arraignment.
According to the filing, the lead attorney representing Abrego Garcia is now Rascoe Dean, the son of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. A longtime federal prosecutor, Dean was employed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee as the deputy chief of the General Crimes Unit as recently as September 2024, when he was listed as a panelist for an event held by the Federalist Society.
Dean entered the private sector on April 1, according to a press release by Sherrard Roe Voigt and Harbison, the Nashville-based lawyers who hired Dean to become “a member of the firm’s litigation group,” where its press release explained he is now engaged in “counseling clients on various business disputes, government investigations, and criminal and commercial matters.”
Notably, Dean’s tenure as a federal prosecutor in Middle Tennessee overlapped with that of Ben Schrader, who reportedly resigned from his position as chief of the Criminal Division in May due to objections to the DOJ indictment against Abrego Garcia.
Sherrard Roe claims to boast “highly skilled and nationally ranked lawyers,” who “provide exceptional civil litigation and transactional legal services to businesses and individuals.” The firm also states that it regularly engages in pro bono work, including “high-profile civil rights litigation.”
The Tennessee Star contacted Sherrard Roe to ask whether it was providing its services to Abrego Garcia pro bono, and if not, who was paying the alleged human smuggler’s legal bills, but did not receive a response prior to press time.
The filing also shows Abrego Garcia is represented by attorneys Sean Hecker, Jenna Dabbs, and David Patton, who appear to be affiliated with the New York law firm Hecker Fink.
Hecker Fink’s website pledges “a profound a substantial commitment to lawyering in the public interest,” and states that it has “been repeatedly recognized for” its “public interest and pro bono leadership.”
One pro bono case highlighted by Hecker Fink is its successful litigation against the organizers of the controversial Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the attorneys say they secured a $26 million verdict for the plaintiffs.
The change to Abrego Garcia’s legal team comes less than one week after his arraignment, when Abrego Garcia’s public defenders effectively argued that he should be released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody while awaiting trial.
He was arraigned just one week after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed an indictment that claimed Abrego Garcia spent nearly a decade smuggling illegal immigrants throughout the country, including gang members. Co-conspirators claimed he would sexually proposition women and children during these trips.
The Star first reported a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled over Abrego Garcia in November 2022. It was also the first to report that, despite suspecting Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking, the “Biden-era FBI” ordered troopers to release the citizen of El Salvador and his passengers.
Abrego Garcia has argued that his March deportation by the Trump administration violated his 2019 final deportation order, which contained a withholding of removal provision that prohibited his deportation to one of two nations, El Salvador or Guatemala.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Gee wonder who arranged this lucky break for this smuggling illegal.
Karl Dean’s kid? What a shock. How pitiful can you get. Justice not blind in Nashville that’s for sure.
who is paying his bill?
who is paying for this? surely not him