Federal Grand Jury Indicts Corona Woman On Charge Of Assaulting ICE Agent, Interfering With Arrest

RIVERSIDE, CA — A federal grand jury has indicted two Ontario surgery center employees, charging them with assaulting and interfering with U.S. immigration officers who were attempting to detain a landscaper from Honduras.

Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona, were charged Aug. 27 with one felony count of assaulting, resisting, and impeding a federal officer. An October 6 trial date is scheduled.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice narrative, on July 8, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting roving immigration-related operations in Ontario. The officers wore government-issued equipment, including law enforcement vests, and were in an unmarked government-operated vehicle, the DOJ reported. Video from the scene shows an officer wearing a black face covering.

The officers were following three men in a truck when the vehicle "made a quick turn into the parking lot of a surgery center in Ontario," according to the DOJ.

The men exited the truck, and two fled, the DOJ reported.

One of the fleeing men — who the DOJ identified as a Honduran national who was in the U.S. illegally — was "partially detained" near the surgery center’s front entrance "before he resisted and pulled away, causing both him and the ICE officer to fall to the ground," according to the DOJ.

Shortly afterward, a medical staffer helped the man off the ground and "helped pull him away" from the ICE officer. The Honduran man proceeded inside the surgery center and was pursued by the ICE officer, who eventually stopped him.

Ortega and Davila, both dressed in medical scrubs, "impeded and interfered with the arrest" — Davila by wedging herself in between the officer and the Honduran man, pushing the officer, and shouting, "Let him go!" and "Get out!" Ortega impeded the arrest by "grabbing the officer’s arm and then his vest," according to the DOJ.

The officer called for assistance, and another ICE officer arrived on scene and saw multiple staff members "grabbing the first officer," according to the DOJ.

The officers eventually detained and handcuffed the Honduran man, then exited the surgery center with him.

During a news conference following their arrests, Ortega told reporters that he and other surgery center employees were instructed to ask for identification and warrants before letting apparent law enforcement into their medical office.

If convicted, the defendants face a statutory maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison.

According to reporting from abc7, the man arrested by ICE was a landscaper who was transported to an Andelanto detention facility and later chose to self-deport.