{"id":485968,"date":"2026-10-05T18:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485968\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T18:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:04:18","slug":"bakersfield-veterans-mother-renews-plea-for-help-for-wrongfully-detained-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485968\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield veteran&#8217;s mother renews plea for help for &#8216;wrongfully detained&#8217; son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 The mother of a United States Air Force veteran who has been held in Russia since June 2023 is renewing her plea for help to get her son home. <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.turnto23.com\/news\/local-news\/bakersfield-man-detained-in-russia-allegedly-has-pre-trial-detention-extended-according-to-mother\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael &#8220;Travis&#8221; Leake<\/a>, of Bakersfield, has been detained in Russia since June 6, 2023. Leake is currently serving a 13-year sentence in a penal colony after being accused of possessing and selling drugs. <\/p>\n<p>Advocates have been calling on the White House and State Department to designate Leake as &#8220;wrongfully detained,&#8221; and his mother, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.turnto23.com\/news\/local-news\/mother-of-bakersfield-man-held-in-russia-discusses-his-conditions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Glenda Garcia<\/a>, traveled to Washington, D.C., Monday in an attempt to speak with President Donald Trump or his administration. <\/p>\n<p>A press release says Garcia will be demonstrating outside of the White House Monday, &#8220;for as long as it takes for someone in the administration to meet with her.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the press release, Leake has written letters to President Trump asking for help, saying he is &#8220;in need of medical help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>See more of our previous coverage of this and hear from Garcia in the video player above. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 The mother of a United States Air Force veteran who has been held in Russia&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-485968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485968","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=485968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}