MAGA driver who grabbed rifle at 2025 anti-Trump rally in Lafayette avoids trial
Special prosecutor offers diversion agreements for man with gun, his wife and man who headbutted him in crowded confrontation outside Tippecanoe County Courthouse.
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MAGA DRIVER WHO GRABBED RIFLE AT 2025 ANTI-TRUMP RALLY IN LAFAYETTE AVOIDS TRIAL
Three people charged in a confrontation that included a man retrieving a gun to walk through a crowd of demonstrators at an April 2025 “Hands Off” rally near the Tippecanoe County Courthouse have signed pretrial agreements that would keep them from facing further prosecution.
Special prosecutors from Lake County – who took more than a year to review video from the scene before filing charges in April 2026 – filed a diversion agreement Monday for James Jordan, a 45-year-old man now living in Lebanon.
Jordan faced a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for instigating an incident that had him being headbutted before he grabbed a Ruger 5.56mm rifle from the cab of his Ford F-150 pickup truck and weaving through the crowd in downtown Lafayette.
According to a diversion agreement filed Monday, if Jordan keeps a clean record for six months and pays court costs, the charge will be dismissed. The misdemeanor charge carried a potential penalty of up to 180 days in jail and fines of up to $1,000.
A similar diversion agreement was filed in June for his wife, Jessica Jordan, 38, who faced a disorderly conduct charge connected with the incident. During an initial hearing in May, Jessica Jordan told Tippecanoe County Superior Court 4 Judge Matt Sandy that the account of her role laid out by a special prosecutor was “absolutely untrue.”
Jeremy Marks, of West Lafayette, also signed a diversion agreement, filed Monday, on a disorderly conduct charge after being accused of delivering the headbutt to James Jordan after trying to stop him from bodying his way into a crowd of people in a crosswalk, as demonstrators looked to get across Third Street to the rally on a sidewalk outside the courthouse.
Deputy prosecutors with Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter’s office, assigned to review the case in April 2025, did not immediately respond for comment about the decision to offer diversion agreements rather than going to trial in the high-profile confrontation. Myrna Maldonado, public information officer for the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office, said Carter has a standing policy of not commenting on pending or ongoing criminal cases.
James and Jessica Jordan also did not immediately respond Monday for comment.
Marks declined to comment Monday afternoon.
Leslie Glossic, Marks’ fiancé who was at the demonstration in April 2025, questioned the special prosecutor’s decision not to pursue the case against the Jordans.
“As if pointing a gun at people out of anger is equal to defending yourself and others,” Glossic said. “What a lesson to teach the community. In our community someone can point a gun at you and walk into a crowd of adults and children, forever traumatizing folks, and there is no accountability for that. In a country where people driving vehicles into crowds and mass shootings are no longer shocking events, irresponsible gun use should be a much more serious concern. Nobody would have bothered them if they had stood across the street and counter-protested. They chose aggression.”
Erika Allen, who was a safety marshal for the event, was among those who tried to calm the situation and corral Jordan as he walked into the crowd holding the gun. She said Monday she was disheartened and confused by how the incident was handled.
“I truly believe James Jordan would have shot someone that day had there not been a safety team there to intervene,” Allen said. “It is clear what he and his wife intended to do when they drove to the courthouse. There are countless videos and witnesses who know what happened. It doesn’t make sense that it took them so long to file charges and the charges they filed also don’t make sense. The fact that this is all ending in deferments just solidified what people have been speculating – that our justice system is not about justice, it’s about appeasing those in power.”
The probable cause affidavit filed with the charges included differing descriptions of James Jordan going through the crowd that day, ranging from police saying he’d kept the gun at his side with the barrel pointing to the ground to a witness saying he “began waving it menacingly at the crowd.”
Jordan was briefly detained by Lafayette police on the scene, but he was not arrested that afternoon. In social media posts later by Jessica Jordan, he continued to defend his actions as legal and provoked by an anti-Trump crowd – first by marchers using a crosswalk, blocking him from turning onto Third Street, and then by a headbutt that bloodied his nose.
According to the court filing, James Jordan told police that he’d been going to a friend’s house “to drop off money for letting his dog out.” He told police that he and his wife drove past the courthouse to see what was happening. He told that he was frustrated by demonstrators crossing the street, blocking him from making a right hand turn from Columbia Street to head north on Third St. He said he got out to confront them “and tell them to move,” which led to him getting headbutted. James Jordan told police he went back to get his gun, insisting that “he never pointed the firearm at anyone and only grabbed it for self-defense.”
The court filing, though, tells about social media posts from Jessica Jordan in the days leading up to the demonstration, in which she called for a counter-protest. In one, she posted: “Hey Lafayette Indiana conservatives … It’s our time to shine.” The post gave the time and location of the demonstration.
Video footage offered to Based in Lafayette from witnesses showed James Jordan – wearing a white “Make America Great Again” hat and a gray hoodie that read, “Trump: Better coverage than 5G. Can you hear us now?” – leave his truck on the street to go chest-to-chest with several demonstrators, his hands in the air as he argued face-to-face with people at the corner. Jessica Jordan is seen filming on her phone from the passenger seat of the pickup truck parked in a westbound lane of traffic on Columbia Street.
The court documents say that “it appears that James Jordan is using his body weight to push into the crowd.” A witness description in the court documents say that as Jordan pushed into the crowd, Marks intervened. He told investigators that “James Jordan continued to push Jeremy Marks, who was holding his ground.”
According to the court documents: “Jeremy Marks was eventually pulled back by one of the protest coordinators, but he soon returned to block James Jordan again, resulting in the headbutt.”
Marks told investigators that he’d gotten involved in the altercation because he was trying to protect some of the volunteers for the protest, according to court documents. (A day after the incident, Marks told Based in Lafayette that he was at the rally because his fiancé wanted to be there. “I couldn’t give two fucks about politics or Donald Trump or any of that,” Marks said at the time. “This guy was screaming, putting his hands on an older lady. He was being the aggressor. I saw him grab that little lady and it was like, what are you doing? And I just lost it.”)
Marks left the scene and was arrested at his home later that night and booked into the Tippecanoe County Jail.
After rally security members and Jessica Jordan got James Jordan back to the truck, Lafayette police briefly detained him before releasing him.
According to court documents filed in April 2026, police found another handgun on the dashboard of the Jordans’ truck. Prosecutors say Jessica Jordan also handed over a yellow tin that had a marijuana joint in it.
The day after of the incident, Lafayette police said: “At this time, initial findings indicate that the firearm was not knowingly and intentionally pointed at any person. However, the presence of a firearm in a tense, crowded public space understandably caused alarm among community members.” Lafayette police later called for more video from the scene after rally organizers and eyewitnesses challenged the initial police response, accusing officers of downplaying what had happened.
Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington filed a request for a special prosecutor a week after the demonstration, telling the judge that a member of the prosecutor’s office staff was related to someone involved in the incident, “thereby possibly creating the appearance of impropriety.”
The scene at the April 2025 demonstration contributed to additional safety measures installed during similar rallies that have come in the year that followed.
Similar diversion agreements were not offered in cases that went before a judge against drivers cited for excessive honking at a pair of anti-Trump rallies held in April 2025 outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. In August 2025 court dates, a pair of drivers ticketed for honking their horns as they showed support for demonstrators were ordered to pay 50-cent fines, along with standard court fees tied to traffic citations. In both cases, heard back-to-back, Judge Michael Morrissey said that the officer had the discretion to give them warnings instead of tickets and that the prosecutor had discretion to not pursue the cases. But Morrissey said that once it landed with him, he was bound by Indiana statute about what constituted excessive honking.
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"James Jordan told police he went back to get his gun, insisting that “he never pointed the firearm at anyone and only grabbed it for self-defense.”" There was nobody attacking him - HE was the aggressor. If he had really been after self-defense, he could have simply driven away.
I agree with Noemi's point below: "HE was the aggressor. If he had really been after self-defense, he could have simply driven away."
Any time I feel threatened, I don't get a weapon to make myself feel less threatened.
Growing up in NYC with parents born in Manhattan, and grandparents who emigrated to the borough, we kids were taught to keep our heads on a swivel and step away from dangerous/uncomfortable situations.
But then, they were law-abiding citizens, not Game Boy-playing, cos-dressing Trumpites, carrying guns to protect themselves from "dangerous" peaceful protestors.