Two Los Angeles protesters were convicted late Friday of stalking a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent after they followed him to his Baldwin Park home.
In a separate verdict that followed a weeklong trial, Ashleigh Brown and Cynthia Raygoza were found guilty of one count of wiretapping and acquitted of one count of conspiracy to publish protected personal information about a government employee. The third defendant, Sandra Samane, came out on top in both cases.
Jurors deliberated for nearly nine hours before reaching their verdict on Friday evening. As United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson read the verdict, people in the audience began to cry, tears flowing silently.
The case stems from an incident in which the three women – all of whom have regularly participated in protests against the Trump administration’s immigration action in Southern California – followed an unmarked government vehicle as it left the federal detention center in the city of Los Angeles on August 28, 2025.
Some supporters in the gallery said during the week that the case was a test of the limits of protest against the Trump administration. While following ICE and Border Patrol agents into law enforcement locations has become a common form of protest in LA and other cities, this case appears to be the first time protesters have confronted a federal agent in their own home.
Under First Assistant US Atty. Bill Essayli, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have charged protesters with assault and interference with immigration agents, filing more than 100 charges. Although they found themselves guilty in 23 of those cases, they had lost all the cases they were trying until Friday.
“We thank the judge for bringing justice to these agitators who broke the law and risked the safety of this public official and his family,” said Essayli on the X website. “Peaceful protests are protected by the Constitution, political violence and illegal intimidation are not.”
Raygoza, 38, of Riverside and Brown, 38, of Aurora, Colo., each face up to five years in prison, according to Essayli. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 8.
Video played at the hearing showed Brown, Raygoza and Samane following the agent’s car from downtown LA to Baldwin Park. The whole incident was broadcast live on the popular Instagram account “ice_out_ofla”.
As they drove, the women could be heard discussing whether the car might be headed for immigration enforcement. They also asked their Instagram followers to turn up in Baldwin Park to protest any potential raids — a tactic often used in cities where the Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement.
But the agent they were after – identified in court as Rogelio Reyes Huitzilin – headed home. During the trial, Huitzilin told jurors that he was meeting his wife and two children for a “surprise” when he saw Brown, Raygoza and Samane on his bridge wearing masks.
Huitzilin got out of his car with his camera phone up next to his wife, and the two parties confronted each other, according to a video played in court.
Raygoza called Huitzilin a “pendejo” and a “race traitor” while yelling at onlookers, “Your neighbor is an ICE agent!” He also made a gay slur about her in Spanish, threatened to throw coffee in her face and called his wife, who is Latina, a “white b—,” according to prosecutors and court footage.
“It upset me that my wife and I were facing that level of discrimination,” Huitzilin said in court this week.
In response, video footage shows him approaching the protesters and later blocking them from leaving the area until Baldwin Park police arrived. Huitzilin alleges that he was “harassed” by Raygoza, but there is no video evidence to show that.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to charge Raygoza with battery in December, records show.
Although Huitzilin said he was concerned that the women might have weapons, none were found at the scene and no one was injured.
Federal prosecutors soon charged the women with conspiracy and disclosing personal information to a federal agent, a federal statute against doxing. “Doxing” is a general term for exposing one’s private information online.
The account “ice_out_ofla”, which has almost 50,000 followers, published an address on Chelsfield Street near where the agent lived, according to records shown in court. The document featured a photo of Huitzilin, calling him a “scoundrel,” according to photos presented by prosecutors in the case.
In court, Homeland Security Investigator Robert Kurtz admitted that he mistakenly included the address published by the protester’s account as Huitzilin’s in several reports and affidavits. The doxing charge was dropped after he told prosecutors about his mistake late last year. But prosecutors filed charges against Brown and Raygoza were eventually convicted.
Huitzilin told the jury that his family has been living in fear since the incident. They started from Baldwin Park; one of his sons, afraid of falling behind, chose to study at home; and her younger son, who is autistic, lost access to some needed school services. His wife, who broke down in tears in the tent this week, said she has not slept all night and is receiving treatment after the incident.
But under questioning, Huitzilin admitted that no other protesters came to his house after that day, and he never heard from the defendants again. Lt. Evan Martin of Baldwin Park police told The Times newspaper that “no other incident like this or related to this incident has taken place” at the house in Chelsfield Street.
Despite his concern that his home is no longer safe, Huitzilin also admitted in court that he has not sold the property and several of his relatives still live there.
Brown’s attorneys, Raygoza and Samane, spent the week arguing that the government’s case should be dismissed as equal. The defendants did not know who Huitzilin was, or had the intention of identifying his address or harassing him. The lawyers also said it was Huitzilin who started the confrontation on Chelsfield Street by approaching the women.
Raygoza’s lawyer, Gregory Nicolaysen, said: “They never called him by name, they didn’t know his name.
Nicolaysen and other lawyers argued in the case that a trial was impossible because the federal penal code requires the defendant to have a pattern of behavior to be guilty. The women contacted the agent only one day, during the 90-minute incident, he said.
“That is not hiding, this case is far from over,” he said, asserting that he will appeal the case.
Brown declined to speak to reporters outside court. Samane’s lawyer, Robert Bernstein, welcomed his client’s withdrawal.
“Freedom of speech still exists in this country,” he said. “The federal government cannot criminalize political speech protesting ICE operations.”
Trump administration officials have repeatedly expressed concern that disclosing the names of ICE or Border Patrol agents would lead to harassment, but criminal charges in such cases are rare. Publishing certain protected information — such as a government employee’s home address, Social Security number or phone number — for the purpose of inciting harassment or violence is a federal crime.
But the case revealed far more personal information about the agent and his family than the alleged doxing incident. The protesters never mentioned his name in their live broadcasts and never published his real home address. During the three-day trial, prosecutors revealed Huitzilin’s full name, his wife’s full name, the names and ages of their children, their former home address and details about Huitzilin’s work as a federal agent and military veteran.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to answer questions about whether prosecutors have considered how much information they can reveal about Huitzilin before the trial.
