CHICAGO — A mid-level supervisor for a ring of Chinese prostitutes told a federal jury Monday she was initially fond of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Luis Uribe when he started paying her for sex and that their relationship was comfortable enough that she asked him for help with immigration issues.

But after Uribe was suspected in a series of attacks on sex workers in her group, the woman, who goes by the Americanized name “Lisa,” agreed to help lure Uribe to a lunch meeting in order to get a photo of him and deliver a message from the bosses in China, according to her testimony.

“The message was asking him not to harm our girls, and we would provide free sex to him once a week,” Lisa testified through a Mandarin interpreter.

Lisa’s testimony was a key component of the prosecution’s case against Uribe, a veteran agent stationed at O’Hare International Airport who allegedly used his badge and his gun to burst into hotel rooms and rob and rape four women connected with the Chinese sex industry in a series of brazen attacks in 2022.

Uribe, 45, is on trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on a federal indictment charging him with 10 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, and one count of brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors have alleged Uribe “perverted” his duty to serve and protect, going from investigating crimes to committing them.

But Uribe’s attorney, Michael Clancy, has said that while Uribe is a weak and “flawed” man who indeed visited prostitutes, the alleged victims were liars who had sought his help with immigration issues before setting him up.

Clancy has said that his client will testify in his own defense, possibly as early as Tuesday.

Before Lisa took the stand, the jury heard from the four alleged victims, all of whom identified Uribe as the “fake police” who assaulted them. But all four women also had trouble at times recalling details of the attacks and seemed befuddled at times when confronted on cross-examination with discrepancies in what they told investigators.

That continued Monday morning with cross-examination of one victim who alleged that she was assaulted and robbed by Uribe on three separate occasions, including an attack that occurred while her friends were shopping for groceries.

She told the jury that while Uribe was raping her and smacking her in the face, the friends returned and heard her screaming. When they opened the door, Uribe ran out into the parking lot, where their driver tried to stop him from leaving only to have his foot run over by Uribe’s car, the woman testified.

But under questioning from defense attorney MIchael Clancy, the victim refused to identify the friend who was there. When Clancy asked the name of the driver, she responded “he died.”

“Did he have a name before he died?” Clancy asked.

“I don’t know his name,” the witness said. “Lisa assigned him to us.”

Lisa, who was born in China and is not in the U.S. legally, testified Monday that she first met Uribe in 2021 when he paid her for sex at a Red Roof Inn. He returned several more times and she liked him — enough so that she became jealous when another girl also had his attention, she said. After learning he was a federal agent, she briefly tried to get his help with her immigration status.

“He said he is in immigration police. I told him about my work permit. I thought he could help me,” Lisa testified, adding later that he ultimately did not help.

Lisa kept her head bowed during much of her testimony and nodded answers at times, prompting the attorneys to repeatedly tell her she had to answer out loud. At one point, she took issue with Clancy’s questions about her sex work, particularly the nuances of her relationship with Uribe.

“I dont know how to explain,” Lisa said, keeping her eyes downcast at the witness stand. “This is my privacy. It is not related to the case.”

When Clancy continued to press whether Uribe had always paid her for sex when they saw each other, Lisa at first declined to answer

“It’s my work. That happened many years ago,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso told her: “You have to answer the question. The attorney has a right to question you.”

On redirect examination, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Rothblatt asked Lisa about the lunch at the seafood buffet. She said he never denied participating in the attacks. And after lunch at the buffet, he cashed in on the offer almost immediately.

“He followed us back to the hotel and he had sex with the other two women,” she said.

“And did he pay for it?” Rothblatt asked.

“No, it’s free,” Lisa said.

Later Monday, prosecutors called Jose Sarabia, a North Chicago police detective who is related through marriage to Uribe’s younger brother. Sarabia testified he recognized Uribe in the photo from the buffet that was sent in a bulletin issued by Schaumburg police in October 2022. In a text message string shown to the jury, Sarabia advised Uribe to get in touch with police.

“If they ask how you know tell them cop friend told you just to call them,” Sarabia wrote in the text.

“Si Pero now I need to find a lawyer,” Uribe replied. “If I’m going to be talking to the police que no? Dude I’m freaking out.”

“Don’t be,” Sarabia replied, adding that the bulletin only said he “may or may not be involved.”

A few weeks later, Sarabia talked briefly to Uribe while playing bags at a nephew’s birthday party and asked if he’d reached out to the authorities. Uribe said only to “not to mention anything” about it to his wife, and that “he would take care of it,” Sarabia testified.

What was his demeanor? the prosecutor asked.

“Calm as always,” Sarabia testified.

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