Posted on 12/22/2025 11:10:43 AM PST by algore
A federal jury has acquitted a South L.A. man who was charged with stealing government property by towing an immigration agent’s vehicle during the arrest of a TikTok influencer in downtown Los Angeles earlier this year.
Bobby Nunez was arrested Sept. 2 after he was accused of interfering with the detainment of Tatiana Mafla-Martinez while she live-streamed her Aug. 15 arrest. Video of the incident showed an SUV being towed away from the parking garage of the Da Vinci Apartments, where Martinez is being pinned to the ground by agents.
The SUV was one of two vehicles being used to box in Martinez’s car and prevent her from escaping the luxury apartment complex, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. Nunez was 33 at the time of the incident, and Martinez was 23.
After a four-day trial and more than three hours of deliberation, the jury found Nunez not guilty of one count of theft of government property Friday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, which declined to comment on the verdict. He had faced up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Nunez’s attorneys, Deputy Federal Public Defenders Rebecca Harris and David Menninger, said they were pleased the jury exonerated their client.
“We thank the jurors for their service as an essential backstop against prosecutorial overreach in our constitutional system,” they said in a statement to The Times.
During the trial, the defense attorneys argued that the law enforcement vehicle was blocking the driveway to the complex and their client had moved it around the corner — just one block away. They said that the car was returned within 13 minutes.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
He took the car, and it doesn’t matter how far he took it. He knew what he was doing IMO. Jury Nullification in a blue city/state.
You eventually get to a point where many of the folks in the jury pool, in the burocracy, sympathize...
When you reach that point, the only way to fix it is from the outside.
It’s like Chicago trying to fix itself during the gangster era of 1920 - 1930. No way that town could fix itself because the problem had spread to every part of government and the burocracy.
This was jury nullification.
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE.
Corrupt state, corrupt governor, corrupt city, corrupt mayor, corrupt residents, corrupt jury. That’s California and Los Angeles.
I did. He should be in jail.
“While the officers were distracted, Nunez used his tow truck to tow a government vehicle, with its emergency lights flashing, out of the garage, according to the affidavit. The vehicle had its keys inside and a firearm locked inside a safe.”
Time to start incorporating motions to change venue to Texas when Californians get Federal charges.
Next time shoot the MF.
ICE cannot get a fair jury trial in Los Angeles.
No more than Donald Trump could get a fair trial in New York.
Based on what was posted, the only thing he was charged with was one count of theft of government property.
Again, based on what was posted, and I’m not going to try to access the LA Times which I understand is paywalled, it wasn’t theft. It just wasn’t.
There has to be an intent to permanently deprive the true owner of possession for it to be theft, and you have to prove that intent beyond a reasonable doubt. When the unauthorized tower left the car around the corner, or a block away, he negated any reasonable inference that he intended to “permanently deprive”.
It might be some other crime, or civil offense. The posted portion of the article mentions interference with government law enforcement operations. That would have been a better approach, if there was a law against it, which I assume there is, but presumably the prosecutor decided it wouldn’t work. So they just went with theft. But it wasn’t theft.
This looks like a proper verdict to me.
It is prosecutorial over reach.
If they had brought charges of obstruction or interfering with gov’t officers performing their duties, then this would be an incorrect verdict.
But they charged him with theft of the vehicle. Taken less than a block away and returned in a few minutes.
That is not theft. That charge was absurd.
You could get him for other charges, but the prosecution did not do that.
Verdict: correct.
Obstruction of federal agents.
You’ve got to charge them, in order to convict them. There is such a thing called a “lesser included offense”, where you can charge someone with first, second, and third degree murder, and involuntary manslaughter, which are all different gradations of homicide, and you hope for a conviction as high up the ladder as you can get the jury to accept, but if they obstructed justice, and you just go to trial on theft, which they didn’t do, you’re SOL.
Agree with analysis. Is there any reasonable expectation existing here that this acquittal would not be repeated for any version of charges filed and tried? Or is jury nullification the the fait accompli result no matter what in blue cities?
Jury of his peers. This country is FUBAR. It will not recover unless white Christians outbreed the third world turds who occupy the country.
Jury Nullification is exactly what it is
Unfortunetly Venue is everything now.
There is a place for vigilante justice when a society’s official justice machinery has been thoroughly corrupted.
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