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LA JURY ACQUITS PROTESTER DESPITE TOP BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL’S
TESTIMONY  
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Brittny Mejia and James Queally
September 17, 2025
Los Angeles Times
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_ Protests across Los Angeles this summer led to charges against
multiple people accused of assaulting or impeding federal immigration
agents. A jury rejected the charges against Brayan Ramos-Brito in the
first case to go to trial. _

Gregory Bovino, the prosecution's key witness in the failed case
against Brayan Ramos-Brito, arrives at Chicago-area ICE facility,
screen grab

 

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
[[link removed]] 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— 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.

Brittny Mejia [[link removed]] is a
Metro reporter covering federal courts for the Los Angeles Times.
Previously, she wrote narrative pieces with a strong emphasis on the
Latino community and others that make up the diversity of L.A. and
California. Mejia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist
[[link removed]] in
2021 in local reporting for her investigation with colleague Jack
Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net
healthcare system that resulted in months-long wait times for
patients, including some who died before getting appointments with
specialists. She joined The Times in 2014.

James Queally [[link removed]] writes
about crime and policing in Southern California, where he currently
covers Los Angeles County’s criminal courts, the district
attorney’s office and juvenile justice issues for the Los Angeles
Times. A part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for
coverage of the 2015 terror attack at the Inland Regional Center in
San Bernardino, Queally has written extensively about violence, police
pursuits, street racing and law enforcement misconduct since coming to
The Times. A Brooklyn native, he moved West in 2014 after spending
five years covering crime and police news for the Star-Ledger in New
Jersey. Not content with real-life crimes, he also makes up fictional
ones: Queally is the author of three novels – “Line of Sight,”
“All These Ashes” and “Surviving the Lie” – that make up the
Russell Avery series for Counterpoint Press.

LOS ANGELES TIMES
The Los Angeles Times [[link removed]] is the largest
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million and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.4
million. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times
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has been covering Southern California for more than 143 years.
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