Rahul Agarwal Helps Secure Speedy Dismissal of Criminal Complaint Against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka

On May 9, 2025, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested by federal agents, detained, and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey by criminal complaint with trespassing at a migrant detention facility in Newark. Mayor Baraka had come to support members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation in their inspection of the facility, against which the city of Newark recently brought suit for housing detained migrants without allowing for legally-required City inspections. Friedman Kaplan partner Rahul Agarwal, along with Raymond Brown of Pashman Stein Walder Hayden and Wanda Akin of Wanda M. Akin & Associates, defended Mayor Baraka, ultimately securing the dismissal, with prejudice, of the charge in just under two weeks.

In a statement issued shortly after the Mayor’s arrest, Rahul and the defense team noted that trespassing is a municipal charge typically handled by way of a ticket. Instead, the federal government “arrested, handcuffed, and detained for five hours the Mayor of New Jersey’s largest city.” The statement went on to stress that Mayor Baraka visited the center “to exercise his First Amendment rights as a public official and citizen concerned about the rule of law and the constitution” and that he “acted throughout with calm, restraint, and dignity, in a law-abiding manner.”

At a May 15 court hearing, the defense team indicated that they planned to file motions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and for selective prosecution. The court set a July trial date. Subsequently, on May 19, the U.S. Attorney's Office agreed to drop the charge against Mayor Baraka. Magistrate Judge André M. Espinosa convened a virtual hearing on May 21 during which he formally dismissed the charge after giving all parties the opportunity to speak. During the conference, Rahul noted defense counsel’s position from the outset that “these charges did not and would not survive scrutiny” by the court and by the public. He added that the dismissal does not undo the time that Mayor Baraka was in custody and subject to a criminal charge nor the associated public scrutiny and interrogation.

The case and its speedy resolution were widely covered in the press, including in Law360, New Jersey Law Journal, Reuters, New Jersey Monitor, New Jersey Globe, and The Guardian, among others.