Days ahead of trial, a federal judge has dismissed an indictment against a TikTok streamer shot by ICE earlier this year, citing constitutional violations by the government.
In a Saturday order, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin cited the deprivation of Carlitos Ricardo Parias’ access to counsel while held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and the government’s failure to comply with discovery deadlines — including the timely release of body worn camera footage that captured the shooting.
Federal authorities had accused Parias, a well-known TikTok streamer of local breaking news, of ramming his car into agents’ vehicles after they boxed him in and tried to arrest him during an immigration enforcement operation in October. An ICE officer opened fire, striking Parias in the arm and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal with a ricochet bullet.
That same day, prosecutors charged Parias with assault on a federal officer. In November, he was indicted by a grand jury. Parias was scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, previously told the Times that Parias had “weaponized his vehicle” and said “fearing for the safety of the public and law enforcement, our officers followed their training and fired defensive shots.” But newly obtained body worn camera footage raises questions about that claim.
The video captures an ICE officer holding a gun in one hand and using the other to break open the window of Parias’ car. As the officer shouts at Parias to turn off the car, Parias raises his hands in the air and ask why he is being detained. The officer repeatedly tries to open the passenger side door, before moving the gun to his left hand, right before firing the gun.
“Oh,” the officer said, sounding surprised. “F—.”
“Who shot?” someone asked.
“I shot, I shot,” the officer responded.
In his 28-page order, Olguin dismissed the indictment with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the same charges of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon and depredation of government property.
“In short, because the deprivation of Mr. Parias’s access to counsel during the critical period prior to his trial caused him actual and threatened prejudice, and because no other remedy could adequately cure his deprivation, the court agrees with defendant that dismissal of the indictment is warranted,” Olguin wrote.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal Public Defender Cuauhtemoc Ortega and Deputy Federal Public Defender Gabriela Rivera, who represented Parias, said in a statement that they were “pleased that the court dismissed the charges against their client.”
“While we remain quite confident that a jury would readily acquit Mr. Parias, the government prejudiced his right to a fair and speedy trial by denying him meaningful access to his defense team and failing to timely disclose the evidence they claimed supported the charges,” they said in the statement. “We are grateful that Mr. Parias’s constitutional rights were vindicated.”
Although the criminal charges against him have been dismissed, Parias could remain in ICE detention as his immigration case proceeds.
Federal authorities sought to arrest Parias on Oct. 21 on an administrative arrest warrant in conjunction with a federal immigration proceeding, according to a criminal complaint filed against him. Homeland Security officials have said Parias is in the country illegally.
An official with the Department of Homeland Security accused Parias of having “previously escaped from custody,” although video obtained by the Times appears to show the federal agents letting him go during a June incident.
In the recent incident that ended with a shooting, Parias was leaving his home and driving down the street, when federal agents — including from ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service — used their vehicles to box him in, according to the criminal complaint.
Body worn camera footage captures the ICE officer approaching Parias’ passenger side door and stating that he’s going to “break the window.” As the officer smashes the window, the car begins to rev and smoke billows up from the spinning tires. The officer pulls out his gun soon after, holding it in his right hand as he smashes the window at the same time.
The complaint alleges that when the rear of the car began to “fishtail,” it “caused the agents to fear that PARIAS may lose control of the Camry and hit them.” A Homeland Security Investigations agent wrote that Parias’ acceleration of the Camry “caused debris (likely rubber being shed from the tires themselves) to fly into the air, which struck some of the agents.”
“Bajate, te vamos a disparar,” the ICE officer warns in the video. “Get out, we’re going to shoot you.”
Once the wheels stopped spinning, an officer reached in through the broken window of the passenger door, “brandishing a gun in one hand while attempting to open the door with the other,” the judge wrote in his order.
As the officer shouts at him to turn off the car, Parias says in the body cam footage that he doesn’t have anything and asks why he’s being detained.
“Mátenme, mátenme,” Parias says. “Kill me.”
In the video, the ICE officer can be seen firing shortly after and Parias begins to scream: “Mi mano.” My hand.
Parias was hospitalized for nearly a week after the shooting, before being transported to jail.
Although a federal judge later ordered Parias released on bond, once he was released from the custody of the U.S. Marshals, he was immediately transferred to ICE custody on Nov. 24, pursuant to a detainer. He’s being held at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
Olguin wrote in his order that “the government’s decision to administratively detain Mr. Parias in Adelanto is when and where the constitutional violations began in this case.”
By placing Parias in immigration detention, Olguin wrote, the government “has jeopardized this court’s ability to try Mr. Parias in compliance with the demands of the Sixth Amendment” — which provides for a fair and speedy trial.
Parias’ attorneys filed a declaration citing challenges to Parias’ access to counsel resulting from his detention in Adelanto, which is at least a two hour drive from the defense counsel’s office in downtown L.A.
With less than three weeks before trial, Parias’ defense team had been unable to schedule any legal visits with Parias since the beginning of his ICE detention, Ortega said in a court filing. He cited the distance and difficulties scheduling a video-telephone conference with their client.
“Here, defendant’s detention in Adelanto has effectively denied him access to his counsel for nearly the entire month preceding trial,” Olguin wrote in his order. “In short, the obstacles and roadblocks that ICE has put in place at Adelanto make it difficult, if not impossible, for defendant to meet with his attorneys, and have caused defendant to suffer demonstrable prejudice or a substantial threat thereof.”
Olguin also noted that the government did not produce any discovery to the defense until Nov. 26, nearly a month after the initial request. He said the government “has continued to produce discovery to the defense well beyond the discovery cutoff.”
“Moreover, the prejudice to Mr. Parias has been exacerbated by the government’s conduct especially as it relates to meeting deadlines and producing discovery,” he wrote.
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