YouTuber David “Riverside County Accountability” Chavez was arrested on Thursday in California as part of an on-going investigation and crackdown on First Amendment auditors by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department and other agencies.
Chavez briefly went live in the pre-dawn hours on Thursday with a 40 second video indicating that he was awoken by an “explosion” outside of his house. Dazed, he went to his door only to find two armed police officers who said they had a warrant and took him into custody as the video ended.
According to the Frog’s reporting, Chavez is being held without bail at the High Desert Detention center without bond. His court date is December 18, 2023, and he is facing charges of False Imprisonment, Illegal Use of Tear Gas and Conspiracy to Commit a Crime.
A press conference held by the San Bernadino Sherriff’s Office on Thursday indicated that Chavez was one of eight people who were arrested on Friday as part of a ring of suspects who used the cover of first amendment auditing to harass and attack members of the public at civil rights protests.
The investigation began in September and was overseen by Victorville City Police Department Detective Tony Romero and had participation from multiple police agencies in the San Bernadino area.
The others arrested in the crackdown were Wendy Lujan, Stephanie Amesquita, Gullit Eder Acevedo, Edwin Pena, Fernando Lopez, Vanessa Carrasco and Edin Alex Enamorado; all are being held without bond until their arraignment on Monday.
CountyLocalNews.com reported that the incident that sparked the arrests happened at an arranged protest in September in support of a 16-year-old girl who was body-slammed by a police officer after a football game. The protest turned violent as the auditors squared off with a male passenger in a vehicle, which resulted in an uninvolved citizen being pepper sprayed.
All eight suspects are being represented by Civil rights attorney Christian Contreras.
Special thanks to all of those who helped with this article by sending links to the YouTube coverage and to the Frog for his original YouTube report.
This is a developing story.
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