On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two women, one of them from Riverside, California, have been found guilty of stalking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and livestreaming the tracking process on social media.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, 38-year-old Cynthia Raygoza from Riverside and 38-year-old Ashleigh Brown from Aurora, Colorado, were convicted of stalking on the evening of February 27.
Bill Essayli, the Chief Federal Prosecutor for the Central District of California, stated, “The two instigators tracked a federal employee and livestreamed it on social media, causing trauma to the victim and their family. Justice has been served. Our constitution protects peaceful protest, not political violence and illegal intimidation.”
During the four-day trial, evidence presented showed that on August 28 last year, the defendants, dressed in black with masks covering their faces, followed an ICE officer from the Los Angeles federal building to his private residence as he was preparing to surprise his three and seven-year-old sons.
The defendants livestreamed the tracking of the officer on Instagram, providing route information while encouraging viewers to share the livestream. When they reached the officer’s neighborhood, they shouted to onlookers, “Your neighbor is ICE! ICE lives on your street, you should know!”
Raygoza even threatened to physically harm the ICE officer, prompting the officer’s wife and a concerned neighbor to call 911.
Later, Brown publicly shared an address approximately 100 feet from the officer’s residence on Instagram and urged viewers watching the livestream to come. Several other masked individuals appeared outside the officer’s home.
The officer’s wife was subjected to racial insults by the defendants, and both she and her children witnessed the entire ordeal, causing emotional distress.
In the following weeks, the onlookers continued to gather, ultimately forcing the officer and his family to relocate to another county. The forced relocation significantly impacted the children’s education, particularly the officer’s disabled son who lost various social and medical benefits linked to their original county.
U.S. Federal District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson has scheduled a sentencing hearing for the defendants on June 8, where Raygoza and Brown could face up to five years in federal prison.
However, the jury found Raygoza and Brown not guilty of conspiring to publicly disclose personal information of a federal officer.