L.A. County man released from federal custody after allegedly trying to impede an immigration operation

CBS News

9 hours ago

The 20-year-old Walmart employee accused of conspiracy to impede a federal investigation in Pico Rivera last week shared his side of the violent encounter with immigration agents that was caught on video and sparked protests.
Now wearing a brace on his leg, Adrian Andrew Martinez said he's still bruised and in pain nine days after federal agents threw him to the ground and arrested him.
"They didn't read me my Miranda rights," Martinez said. "They did nothing. They just basically kidnapped me, is what it seemed."
A cell phone video of the encounter shows Martinez, wearing a blue Walmart vest, appearing to talk to the Customs and Border Patrol agents before authorities wrestled the 20-year-old to the ground. Martinez said he approached the agents after he saw them use what he called unnecessary force to apprehend an elderly Latino janitor in the Walmart parking lot.
"I was just speaking, like telling them that's wrong, what you're doing is not right," Martinez said. "They took it the wrong way and threw me to the floor, and from then a man grabs me by my neck and throws me into a trash can thing."
Martinez was arrested and held in downtown L.A. for three days.
"They didn't treat him like a human being," his mom Mayra Villarreal said. "When they took him, they didn't give him clothes. The inmates were being nicer to him than the people working there."
Before being released last Friday, Martinez said authorities tried to get him to admit to hitting an agent.
"They were just trying to get me to admit the whole time," Martinez said. "In reality, no, I didn't. I was just speaking up for a man. They're the ones that came at me with violence."
Miller Law Group in Pasadena is helping Martinez fight the federal charge for free. Attorney Chris Miller said his client was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.
"He saw someone being manhandled, an older man who was scared," Miller said. "He could see that person was scared and all he was doing was asking them what they were doing, why they were doing it and questioning why they were doing it that way. By questioning their authority, they took it upon themselves to respond violently and that's not OK. It's something we're going to be addressing."
Initially, the U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X that Martinez "was arrested for an allegation of punching a border patrol agent in the face after he attempted to impede their immigration enforcement operation."
Instead of assault, federal prosecutors charged Martinez with conspiracy to impede a federal investigation, according to the Department of Justice.
Miller said he believes his client was not charged with assault because the video shows that he never hurt anyone.
"In the end, charges were brought against him, we believe, to cover the agents' bad behavior," Miller said.
A DOJ spokesperson said that Martinez will be arraigned on July 17 and that federal prosecutors had no further comment.