I’m sure you’ll be shocked, SHOCKED to hear that completely groundless arrests and prosecutions by (alleged) “federal officials” are going on in the Los Angeles area in connection with immigration sweeps.
Trying hard to spare a tear here for Bill Essayli, interim U.S. Attorney for California’s Central District, whose office, it seems, has been struggling to raise its batting average on cases involving people — most of whom, oddly, appear to have Hispanic-sounding surnames — accused of various crimes against ostensible ICE and other DHS agents who, after all, were chust follovink ohduhs.
According to a story in today’s LA Times (I hope this is not behind a paywall; apologies if it is), Essayli’s office is batting under .200 not for convictions, but merely for indictments from the grand jury “for alleged misconduct that either took place during last month’s protests or near the sites of immigration raids.”
After charging at least 38 people with felonies, Essayli and his KKKeystone Kops have managed to obtain a grand total of seven indictments. Seven! Indictments! Not convictions — indictments! (Totally unconfirmed at this time are reports that Essayli in his frustration has been haranguing underlings to “bring me a ham sandwich!!”)
You might want to pull up your fainting couch because it turns out that — gasp — many of the accounts of “ICE agents” or other “federal officials” in the filings against these defendants turned out to be utter fabrications.
[A] U.S. Border Patrol officer claimed a man was screaming in his face that he was going to “shoot him,” then punched him. The officer said he and other agents started chasing the man, but were “stopped by two other males,” later identified as [Jose] Mojica and Bryan Ramos-Brito.
[Mojica’s defense attorney Meghan] Blanco said she obtained social media videos showing no such chase took place and presented them at Mojica’s first court appearance. The charges were soon dropped.
“The agent lied and said he was in hot pursuit of a person who punched him,” Blanco said. “The entirety of the affidavit is false.”
Or this one, where a tiny woman was charged with assaulting a federal officer —
The criminal complaint alleged [Andrea] Velez, who is 4 feet 11 inches, stood in the path of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with her arms extended, striking his head and chest when they collided.
Diane Bass, Velez’s attorney, said the incident occurred when masked, unidentified men in plainclothes pulled up to question a downtown L.A. street vendor.
Velez had just been dropped off for work when some of the masked men ran at her and one shoved her to the ground, Bass said. Velez, fearing she was being abducted, held up her work bag to shield herself.
Bass requested body-worn camera video and witness statements cited in the complaint. Soon after, she said, the prosecutor dismissed the case.
Annnnnywaaay — guess it’s Thursday. WHERE ARE THE EPSTEIN FILES??
