{"id":260821,"date":"2026-04-10T08:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260821\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:36:14","slug":"ice-assault-case-jury-acquits-csu-channel-islands-lecturer-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260821\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE assault case jury acquits CSU Channel Islands lecturer \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cal State Channel Islands lecturer who was\u00a0arrested during an immigration raid at a cannabis farm was acquitted Thursday in\u00a0downtown Los Angeles of a federal charge alleging he hurled a tear gas canister\u00a0at federal agents.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Caravello<\/a>, 38, a U.S. citizen and a lecturer in CSUCI’s math\u00a0and philosophy department, faced up to 20 years in prison if he had been\u00a0convicted of the charge of assault on a federal officer using a deadly or dangerous weapon, court papers show.<\/p>\n

Trial began Tuesday in Los Angeles federal court. The jury returned its verdict Thursday after two hours of deliberations. A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

It is the latest loss for Los Angeles federal prosecutors who have\u00a0lost every such case of assault on a federal officer stemming from anti-immigration enforcement protests that the office has brought to trial.<\/p>\n

Caravello’s supporters applauded the verdict and plan to rally Friday morning in front of the downtown courthouse.<\/p>\n

“We welcome the jury’s decision to acquit Dr. Caravello,” according\u00a0to a statement from the California Faculty Association, a union of 29,000\u00a0professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches across the California\u00a0State University system.<\/p>\n

“After a thorough investigation by the court, John was cleared of any wrongdoing,” the statement continued. “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.”<\/p>\n

According to the first superseding indictment and previously filed documents, on July 10, 2025, federal agents with Homeland Security\u00a0Investigations and U.S. Border Patrol conducted a massive raid at the Glass\u00a0House Farms<\/a> cannabis operation, which sits on a 160-acre property in Camarillo.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said a group of protesters gathered near law enforcement personnel around the farm’s entrance and used their bodies and vehicles to impede law enforcement from exiting the location.<\/p>\n

Later, protesters allegedly became violent, throwing rocks at\u00a0government vehicles attempting to depart the location because of the danger and to provide security to a detainee who had been hospitalized. The thrown rocks broke windows and side-view mirrors, among other damage to the vehicles, prosecutors contend in court papers.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement deployed tear gas among the protesters to assist with crowd control. When Border Patrol agents rolled tear gas canisters by protesters’ feet, Caravello ran up to one of the canisters and attempted to
kick it, federal prosecutors allege.<\/p>\n

After canisters rolled past him, Caravello allegedly turned around, ran towards a canister, picked it up, and threw it overhand back at Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Attorney’s Office contends that as immigration agents attempted to arrest Caravello, he continuously kicked his legs and refused to give agents his arms.<\/p>\n

Caravello’s supporters say the defendant was peacefully protesting the raid, and was intervening to help a demonstrator in a wheelchair who was reported to have a tear-gas canister stuck underneath his chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cal State Channel Islands lecturer who was\u00a0arrested during an immigration raid at a cannabis farm was acquitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-260821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}