Jonathan Caravello was acquitted April 9 of charges that he assaulted federal agents while he was protesting the immigration raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo last summer.
The jury returned the verdict the same afternoon the two-day trial ended at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. It was the latest in a string of defeats for the federal government in cases in which it has charged protesters of assaulting federal officers.
Caravello is an adjunct professor of math and philosophy at CSU Channel Islands. In July, when federal agents raided the cannabis grower Glass House Farms and arrested 361 allegedly undocumented workers, Caravello was on the scene protesting.
At one point, Caravello picked up a tear gas canister that had been rolled in the crowd by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent and threw it. The canister sailed over the heads of a few federal agents, did not hit anyone and did not land near anyone.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office thought Caravello threw the canister at the agents, and in September a grand jury indicted him on a felony charge of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon.
During Caravello’s trial, prosecutors showed the jury video of Caravello telling an agent that day that if he used his tear gas canister, “I’ll throw it right back in your f—ing face.” Prosecutors said that was a threat, one Caravello made good on a few minutes later when he threw the canister.
The jury took only two hours to reject that argument. It sided with Caravello and his attorney, who said Caravello threw the tear gas canister in order to protect himself and his fellow protesters.
“He’s innocent,” defense attorney Knut Johnson said during the trial. “He never threw anything at anyone.”
Caravello could have faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted, though Johnson said before the trial that seven years or less would have been a much more likely sentence.
About 50 of Caravello’s friends, colleagues and other supporters attended the trial. His union, the California Faculty Association, issued a statement on April 9 applauding his acquittal.
“The jury’s decision underscores John’s right to peacefully protest and speak out against the cruelty and inhumanity this administration has shown toward immigrants and other marginalized communities across the country,” the group said in a statement provided to The Star. “There is no question that U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli’s motivations for the charge were not in the interest of justice, but for the sake of protecting Trump’s deeply unpopular campaign to round up his critics and suppress free speech.”
U.S. attorneys have had some trouble getting convictions in cases like these. In Washington, D.C., a man was acquitted last year on an assault charge for throwing a sandwich at federal agents.
On April 3, the Los Angeles Times reported that Essayli’s office in Los Angeles had, up to that point, lost all five cases that went to trial in which it had charged an immigration protester with assaulting an officer.
The Caravello case was a challenge for the prosecution even before it began. During jury selection, many of the prospective jurors disclosed negative opinions about the federal government, President Donald Trump and the recent wave of immigration enforcement across the country.
Eighteen of the 66 potential jurors said they had participated in protests against Trump or in favor of racial justice, and about a dozen said their opinions would make it impossible for them to be impartial jurors.
Jurors who said they could not be impartial were dismissed, but Judge Cynthia Valenzuela did not automatically dismiss everyone who had protested or who expressed strong political opinions.
“Strong feelings about this administration would exclude half the jurors,” Johnson told the judge during a jury selection hearing. “Half the panel will be stricken simply because they marched and exercised their First Amendment rights.”
Two other protesters at the Glass House raid have also been charged with felonies related to that day. In October, federal agents arrested Isai Carrillo and Virginia Reyes, two siblings from Oxnard. The government alleges that they led a group of people who threw rocks at agents and their vehicles during the raid. Their trial is scheduled for June.
Tony Biasotti is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at tbiasotti@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Jury quickly returns verdict on CSUCI professor in assault case
Reporting by Tony Biasotti, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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