Two women convicted of stalking ICE agent during Los Angeles immigration protests

[ad_1] Two Los Angeles protesters have been convicted late Friday of stalking a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent after they adopted him to his Baldwin Park residence.

In a break up verdict that adopted a weeklong trial, Ashleigh Brown and Cynthia Raygoza have been every discovered responsible of 1 depend of stalking and acquitted of 1 depend of conspiring to publish protected private details about a federal worker. A 3rd defendant, Sandra Samane, was acquitted of each counts.

Jurors deliberated for roughly 9 hours earlier than reaching a verdict Friday night. As U.S. District Decide Stephen V. Wilson learn the decision, individuals within the gallery started to cry, tears silently streaming down their faces.

The case stemmed from an incident when the three girls — who've all been often concerned in protests towards the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration actions in Southern California — adopted an unmarked authorities automobile because it drove away from the downtown Los Angeles federal detention middle on Aug. 28, 2025.

Some supporters within the gallery mentioned in the course of the week that this case was a take a look at of the bounds of protest towards the Trump administration. Whereas following ICE and Border Patrol brokers to enforcement websites has turn out to be a standard protest tactic in L.A. and different cities, the case appeared to be the primary occasion of protesters confronting a federal agent at their residence.

Underneath First Assistant U.S. Atty. Invoice Essayli, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have aggressively charged protesters with assaulting and impeding the actions of immigration brokers, submitting greater than 100 instances. Whereas they’ve secured responsible pleas in 23 of these instances, they'd misplaced each case they took to trial till Friday.

“We thank the jury for bringing justice to those agitators who violated the regulation and endangered the protection of this federal officer and his household,” Essayli mentioned in a publish on X. “Peaceable protests are protected by the Structure, political violence and illegal intimidation aren't.”

Raygoza, 38, of Riverside and Brown, 38, of Aurora, Colo., every resist 5 years in federal jail, based on Essayli. Their sentencing listening to is scheduled for June 8.

Video performed at trial confirmed Brown, Raygoza and Samane following the agent’s automobile from downtown L.A. to Baldwin Park. The complete incident was livestreamed on the favored “ice_out_ofla” Instagram account.

As they drive, the ladies will be heard discussing the chance that the automobile is headed towards an immigration enforcement operation. Additionally they known as on their Instagram followers to answer Baldwin Park to protest any doable raids — a tactic used repeatedly in cities the place the Trump administration has aggressively carried out immigration enforcement.

However the agent they have been following — recognized in court docket as Rogelio Reyes Huitzilin — was headed residence. Through the trial, Huitzilin informed jurors he was assembly up together with his spouse and two younger youngsters for a deliberate “shock” when he observed Brown, Raygoza and Samane on his block carrying masks.

Huitzilin exited his automobile holding up his personal digicam cellphone alongside his spouse, and the 2 teams acquired right into a heated change, based on video performed in court docket.

Raygoza known as Huitzilin a “pendejo” and “race traitor” whereas screaming to onlookers, “Your neighbor is an ICE agent!” She additionally referred to him by a homosexual slur in Spanish, threatened to throw espresso in his face and known as his spouse, who's Latina, a “white b—,” based on prosecutors and photographs performed in court docket.

“I used to be disgusted that my spouse and I have been being subjected to that stage of racism,” Huitzilin mentioned in court docket this week.

In response, video footage exhibits him stepping very near the protesters and later bodily blocking them from leaving the realm till Baldwin Park police arrived. Huitzilin alleged he had been “assaulted” by Raygoza, however there isn't a video proof exhibiting that.

The Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace declined to cost Raygoza with battery in December, information present.

Whereas Huitzilin mentioned he was involved the ladies might need weapons, none have been recovered on the scene and nobody was injured.

Federal prosecutors quickly indicted the ladies on costs of conspiracy and disclosing the non-public info of a federal agent, which is successfully a federal anti-doxing statute. “Doxing” is a slang time period for revealing an individual’s personal info on-line.

The “ice_out_ofla” account, which has nearly 50,000 followers, printed an deal with on Chelsfield Road close to the place the agent lived, based on information proven in court docket. The publish displayed an image of Huitzilin, calling him a “scumbag,” based on pictures displayed by prosecutors at trial.

In court docket, Homeland Safety Investigator Robert Kurtz admitted he erroneously listed the deal with printed by the protester account as Huitzilin’s in a number of stories and affidavits. The doxing cost was dropped after he knowledgeable a prosecutor of his error late final yr. However prosecutors added a stalking cost as an alternative, of which Brown and Raygoza have been in the end convicted.

Huitzilin informed jurors that his household has lived in worry ever because the incident. They moved out of Baldwin Park; one in all his sons, fearing backlash, opted to be residence schooled; and his youngest son, who's autistic, misplaced entry to some wanted faculty companies. His spouse, who broke down in tears on the stand this week, mentioned she barely sleeps most nights and is present process remedy after the incident.

However underneath cross-examination, Huitzilin admitted no different protesters got here to his home after that day, and he by no means heard from the defendants once more. Baldwin Park Police Lt. Evan Martin informed The Instances “no different incidents comparable in nature or associated to this incident have occurred” on the Chelsfield Road residence.

Regardless of his considerations that his residence was now not protected, Huitzilin additionally admitted in court docket that he has not bought the property and a number of other of his relations nonetheless reside there.

Attorneys for Brown, Raygoza and Samane spent the week arguing that the federal government’s case was blown out of proportion. The defendants didn't know who Huitzilin was, or have any intention of figuring out his residence deal with or harassing him. Attorneys additionally mentioned it was Huitzilin who initiated the confrontation on Chelsfield Road by approaching the ladies.

“They by no means point out him by identify. They didn’t know his identify. The agent made this complete state of affairs about himself,” Raygoza’s lawyer, Gregory Nicolaysen, mentioned throughout his closing argument.

Nicolaysen and different attorneys had argued at trial the stalking cost was inconceivable to show because the federal penal code requires a defendant to interact in a sample of habits to be responsible of the crime. The ladies solely interacted with the agent on sooner or later, throughout an incident that lasted 90 minutes, he mentioned.

“That’s not stalking. This case is way from over,” he mentioned, vowing to attraction.

Brown declined to talk to a reporter outdoors the courtroom. Samane’s lawyer, Robert Bernstein, celebrated his shopper’s acquittal.

“Free speech nonetheless exists on this nation,” he mentioned. “The federal authorities can not criminalize political speech protesting ICE actions.”

Trump administration officers have repeatedly expressed concern that revealing the names of ICE or Border Patrol brokers will result in harassment, however the submitting of legal costs in such instances is uncommon. Publishing sure protected info — like a federal worker’s residence deal with, Social Safety quantity or cellphone quantity — for the aim of inciting harassment or violence is a federal crime.

However the trial uncovered much more private details about the agent and his household than the alleged doxing incident. The protesters by no means talked about his identify on their reside stream and by no means printed his precise residence deal with. Through the three-day trial, prosecutors disclosed Huitzilin’s full identify, his spouse’s full identify, the names and ages of their youngsters, their now-former residence deal with and particulars about Huitzilin’s profession as a federal agent and army fight veteran.

A spokesman for the U.S. lawyer’s workplace declined to reply questions on whether or not prosecutors thought-about how far more info they could expose about Huitzilin earlier than bringing the case to trial.