A professor at Cal State Channel Island has been charged with assaulting U.S. Border Patrol agents with a deadly or dangerous weapon — a canister of their own tear gas.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Jonathan Caravello, 37, of Ventura on one felony count of assault after he was arrested at a protest against an immigration raid at a Ventura County marijuana farm.
Prosecutors say that agents deployed the tear gas as a crowd control measure during the July 10 protest and that Caravello picked up a canister and lobbed it back at officers. If convicted as charged, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
The incident unfolded during a heated clash between protesters and agents at Glass House Farms’ weed growing site in Camarillo. Caravello posted $15,000 bail and was released on July 14.
The massive immigration operation led to the arrests of more than 300 workers without documentation during simultaneous raids at Glass House Farms’ Camarillo and Carpinteria grow sites, according to the Department of Homeland Security. One worker died after falling 30 feet from a greenhouse roof in an attempt to flee federal agents in Camarillo.
During the operation, a crowd of several hundred protesters gathered at the Laguna Road entrance to the Camarillo site. Prosecutors allege that protesters used their bodies and cars to impede federal law enforcement from exiting the farm and threw rocks at agents’ vehicles, which broke windows and side-view mirrors.
“For agents’ safety, law enforcement deployed tear gas among the protesters to assist with crowd control, ensure officer safety, and to allow law enforcement to depart the location,” prosecutors said.
Caravello is accused of chasing after a tear gas canister that rolled past him and throwing it overhand back at Border Patrol agents.
He then allegedly left the protest and returned two hours later wearing a different T-shirt and shoes, according to court documents. Border Patrol identified him as the suspect who had previously thrown the tear gas canister and attempted to detain him. Caravello allegedly resisted arrest by continuously kicking his legs and refusing to give agents his arms, according to court documents.
Activist Angelmarie Taylor previously told The Times that she is one of his students and witnessed Caravello being “piled on by multiple agents all at once” while trying to assist a man in a wheelchair as agents pushed the crowd back.
Prosecutors initially charged Caravello with felony assault in a criminal complaint filed on July 12 but later downgraded that to a misdemeanor charge. On Aug. 25, the professor pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and told the Ventura County Star, “Anything and everything I do at protests is to protect people. I would never intentionally harm anyone.”
This week, however, a grand jury reviewed the case and ultimately indicted Caravello on a felony count of assaulting a federal agent. He will be arraigned again in the coming weeks, prosecutors said.
Caravello was among four U.S. citizens arrested at the immigration raid on suspicion of assaulting or resisting officers, according to Homeland Security.
Times staff writers Jeanette Marantos and Melissa Gomez contributed to this report.
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