A Los Angeles man was sentenced to a few years in federal jail for tossing rocks and flaming particles at California Freeway Patrol officers beneath a freeway overpass throughout violent anti-ICE riots in downtown LA final summer season.
Ismael Vega, 42, from Westlake, was hit with the sentence Monday along with being ordered to pay $253,415 in restitution.
Vega was half of a big group of protesters on the Important Avenue overpass above Freeway 101 in on June 8, 2025, when one in all CHP’s automobiles was set on fireplace, in accordance with the Division of Justice.
The protesters picked up cardboard, vegetation and fireworks earlier than lighting the gadgets on fireplace and dropping them off the overpass whereas aiming for a CHP automobile, which sat very near officers beneath the overpass.
In his plea settlement, Vega admitted that he knew the officers had been beneath the overpass and that throwing burning particles onto a automobile created a severe danger of loss of life or harm to the officers.
On April 29, Vega pleaded responsible to 1 rely of obstructing, impeding and interfering with regulation enforcement in the course of the protest.
Vega additionally admitted that he repeatedly helped different individuals who had been attempting to set particles on fireplace on the overpass. He lit a big piece of cardboard on fireplace, held it over the railing, and lined it up so it could land on the hood of a CHP automobile. The burning cardboard then landed on the automobile.
In the meantime, one other agitator, Yachua Mauricio Flores, 23, from Lincoln Heights, poured an unknown liquid on the hearth to additional ignite the flames. Vega stood subsequent to him and used his arms to level towards and gesture on the flames, authorities stated.
Vega additionally admitted that he picked up and threw a number of rocks at regulation enforcement officers as they tried to clear the overpass.
He acknowledged that he deliberately acted to intrude with the officers whereas they had been finishing up their duties.
“This civil dysfunction stood aside in its magnitude,” prosecutors stated in a sentencing memorandum. “A sergeant within the California Freeway Patrol with almost three many years in regulation enforcement wrote an announcement about how this incident stood aside and the influence it had on him and his son. His expertise underscores how violent this incident grew to become and the deep toll it took on all regulation enforcement current.”
Vega is the fifth defendant to be sentenced on this case.
Flores is scheduled to be sentenced on August 3 and faces as much as 5 years in federal jail.
The lead defendant, Adam Charles Palermo, 40, of Rampart Village, is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14 and faces a most sentence of 20 years in federal jail.
He copped to a felony rely of assaulting, resisting and impeding individuals helping federal officers and staff with a lethal or harmful weapon.
The FBI investigated the case with assist from the California Freeway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Division.
