A protester was acquitted Wednesday of charges that he assaulted a federal agent during widespread protests against immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles, just hours after one of the faces of President Trump’s enforcement policies took the stand to testify against him.
U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino — the brash agent who led a phalanx of military personnel into MacArthur Park this summer — was called as a witness Wednesday in a federal misdemeanor assault case against Brayan Ramos-Brito, who was accused of striking a federal agent.
Bovino, who flew in to testify from Chicago, the latest city targeted for an immigration enforcement surge, said he witnessed the alleged assault committed by Ramos-Brito in Paramount on June 7.
Bovino was questioned by the defense about previous comments he made referring to undocumented immigrants as “scum.”
The jury came back with the acquittal after a little over an hour of deliberations.
The case could prove to be an ominous bellwether for embattled acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who has struggled to win indictments against those charged with committing crimes while protesting aggressive immigration enforcement in Southern California.
Prosecutors originally brought a felony charge against Ramos-Brito, which was reduced to a misdemeanor.
During the two-day trial, a number of videos were displayed showing a Border Patrol agent shove Ramos-Brito, but none clearly illustrated his alleged attack on the agent.
Outfitted in his green Border Patrol uniform, Bovino was the lone Border Patrol agent to testify that he witnessed Ramos-Brito drag his arm back and strike an agent with an open palm in the chest.
Ramos-Brito and his attorneys declined to comment after the verdict, but were seen celebrating the acquittal in the downtown federal courthouse. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
On a cross-examination, federal public defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega questioned Bovino about being the subject of a misconduct investigation a few years ago and receiving a reprimand for referring to undocumented immigrants as “scum, filth and trash.”
Bovino said he was referring to “a specific criminal illegal alien” — a Honduran national who he said had raped a child and reentered the United States and had been caught at or near the Baton Rouge Border Patrol station.
“I said that about a specific individual, not about undocumented peoples, that’s not correct,” he said.
Ortega pushed back, reading from the reprimand, which Bovino signed, stating that he was describing “illegal aliens.”
“They did not say one illegal alien,” Ortega said. “They said you describing illegal aliens, and or criminals, as scum, trash and filth is misconduct. Isn’t that correct?”
“The report states that,” Bovino said.
Since June, more than 40 people have been charged with a range of federal offenses, including assaulting officers and interfering with immigration enforcement, at either downtown protests or the scene of immigration raids throughout the region this summer, the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. said this week.
Ramos-Brito’s case was the first to go to trial.
In closing arguments, Ortega accused the Border Patrol agent at the center of the case of lying and Bovino of “trying to cover up for him.” He cited Bovino’s past reprimand as evidence that he harbors bias.
But prosecutors pushed back on that, with Asst. U.S. Atty. Patrick Kibbe arguing that the defense “wants you to believe that there’s some grand conspiracy against Ramos-Brito. These officers don’t know him.”
Kibbe acknowledged that Bovino’s prior statements were unprofessional.
“Does it have anything to do with what he saw on June 7? No,” Kibbe said. “This is not about immigration enforcement… it’s about whether the defendant struck Agent Morales.”
A juror who spoke to a Times reporter outside court said Bovino’s testimony had “no impact” on their decision. The lack of video evidence in the case led him to vote not guilty, the juror said.
The case centered around a protest outside the Paramount Business Center, across the street from Home Depot.
Already tensions were high, with federal officials raiding a retail and distribution warehouse in downtown L.A. in early June, arresting dozens of workers and a top union official.
At the Paramount complex, which houses Homeland Security Investigation offices, protesters began arriving around 10 a.m on June 7. Among them was Ramos-Brito.
Several videos played in court Tuesday showed Ramos-Brito and another man cursing at Border Patrol agents and stepping inches from their faces with balled fists. At one point, Ramos-Brito approached multiple Border Patrol agents who appeared to be Latino and said “you’re a f—ing disgrace if you’re Mexican.”
Kibbe said that while many protesters were “passionately” demonstrating, Ramos-Brito crossed a line by striking U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jonathan Morales.
“There’s a constitutional right to protest peacefully. It is a crime to hit a federal officer,” Kibbe said.
Federal public defender M. Bo Griffith, however, said Ramos-Brito was the victim of an assault, not the other way around.
Both social media and body-worn camera footage played in court clearly show Morales shove Ramos-Brito first, sending him flying backward into the busy intersection of Alondra Blvd. While footage shows Ramos-Brito marching back toward the agent with his fists balled, no angle clearly captures the alleged assault.
Aside from Morales, three other agents took the stand Tuesday, but none said they saw Ramos-Brito hit Morales. None of the agents who testified were outfitted with body-worn cameras that day, according to Border Patrol Asst. Chief Jorge Rivera-Navarro, who serves as chief of staff for “Operation At Large” in Los Angeles.
Some of the Border Patrol agents swarming L.A. in recent months come from stations that don’t normally wear body-worn cameras, according to Navarro. He testified that he has since issued an order that led to cameras being distributed to agents working in L.A.
The clash that led to the assault charge started when Ramos-Brito stepped to U.S. Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Mejorado, who said he repeatedly asked Ramos-Brito to move to the sidewalk as the protest was blocking traffic. Video shows Mejorado place his hand on Ramos-Brito’s shoulder twice, and the defendant swatting it away.
At that point, Morales, a 24-year veteran of the Border Patrol, said he thought he needed to step in and de-escalate the situation between his fellow agent and Ramos-Brito. He did so by shoving Ramos-Brito backward into the intersection, according to video played in court. Morales said Ramos-Brito then charged at him while cursing and threw a punch at the upper part of his chest and throat.
On cross-examination, Griffith confronted Morales and Mejorado with inconsistencies between descriptions of the event they previously gave to a Homeland Security Investigations officer and their testimony in court. It was not the first time such a discrepancy affected the case.
Federal prosecutors previously dropped charges against Jose Mojica, the other protester who was arrested alongside Ramos-Brito, after video footage called into question the testimony of an immigration enforcement agent.
According to an investigation summary of Mojica’s arrest previously reviewed by The Times, Mejorado claimed a man was screaming in his face that he was going to “shoot him,” then punched him at the Paramount protest. The officer said he and other agents started chasing the man, but were “stopped by two other males,” later identified as Mojica and Ramos-Brito.
Video played in court Tuesday and previously reported by The Times shows that sequence of events did not happen. Ramos-Brito and Mojica were arrested in a dog pile of agents after Ramos-Brito allegedly struck Mojica. There was no chase.
Questioned about Mojica’s case in July, a Homeland Security spokesperson said they were unable to comment on cases “under active litigation.”
Defense attorneys said Ramos-Brito sustained multiple contusions on his face, neck and back and had cuts and scrapes on his body from being dragged across the pavement later.
According to his attorneys, Ramos-Brito’s only prior interaction with law enforcement was for driving without a license.
