LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The man accused of shooting at Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg pleaded not guilty Friday to federal charges filed against him.
If convicted, 21-year-old Quintez Brown faces up to life in prison.
On Feb. 14, police said Brown fired several shots at Democrat Craig Greenberg at his campaign office in Butchertown. Greenberg said he wasn't hit, but a bullet grazed his sweater.
Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced a grand jury indicted Brown on two federal charges.
The first, interfering with a federally protected right, essentially means the prosecution is accusing Brown of trying to intimidate Greenberg from exercising his right to campaign.
Brown is also charged with using and discharging a firearm in relation to a violent crime by shooting at and attempting to kill a candidate for elective office.
Brown pleaded not guilty to those federal charges Friday and his lawyers filed a motion to get the case thrown out. They said Brown was unlawfully arrested because he was on home incarceration awaiting trial for his pending state case.
"In this case here, the federal government, acting through its agents, came into his home, snatched him up while he's in his pajamas, took him out of the house in violation, in my view, of the District Court and the Circuit Court orders in Jefferson County," Brown's defense attorney Patrick Renn said.
Attorneys were going to ask for Brown to be released until his detention hearing next Friday, but the judge said that's not allowed so he's staying in jail.
The prosecution said they'll be asking the judge to keep Brown in jail until his trial.
The defense said they want him out because they say he has mental health problems, but did say Brown is getting his prescribed medications and is able to have telehealth appointments with a therapist in federal custody.
"It's very frustrating, obviously, for us as attorneys," Renn said. "It's also clearly frustrating for him and his family."
Renn feels this case is racially motivated.
"He is a Black man and his case isn't being handled in state court where all the other murders and attempted murders and gun discharge cases, start and finish," Renn said. "This is something highly unusual."
On the state level, Brown is facing one charge of attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment. Until he was arrested by federal authorities, he had been on home incarceration.
After Brown was taken into custody on Valentine's Day, the Louisville Community Bail Fund, supported by Black Lives Matter Louisville, paid his $100,000 bond.
Renn also said he thinks politics is behind the federal charges and alluded to the ad Louisville mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg is running about the shooting. The ad started airing Thursday.
"He comes out with a television commercial, basically touting this individual who's been accused of a crime while mentally ill, and making a political issue out of it in and of itself," Renn said.
In an interview with WHAS11 Wednesday, Greenberg said he's not trying to capitalize on this situation.
"I thought given my position and how public this was, it was important to share our experience with the community to talk about how we're going forward from here," Greenberg said.
The prosecution didn't offer any comments after the hearing Friday.
At the detention hearing next week, the judge will decide if Brown will be kept in jail until the case wraps up.
The federal court system doesn't have bail. The judge either has the option to detain him throughout the entire case, or release him and let him await trial outside of jail.
"I respect the legal process that will unfold over the coming months," Greenberg said in a statement Thursday after the federal charges were announced. "My family, my team and I appreciate the outpouring of support from across the city."
As of Friday, Brown was detained at the Grayson County Detention Center.
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