Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto filed misdemeanor charges against more than 20 people who protested federal immigration raids last June. The charges came just before the one-year statute of limitations expired.

All of the defendants face a single count of failure to disperse, a charge the city attorney's office has never before filed on its own, according to Knock LA, which first reported the prosecutions Monday, Sept. 7. Defense attorney Damon Alimouri called the filing politically motivated. No defendants have pleaded guilty.

"I'm not aware of any case that office has ever filed solely for failure to disperse," Leslie Wolf, a member of the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Union Local 148 who works in misdemeanor arraignment court, told Knock LA.

The city attorney's office has not responded to Knock LA's requests for comment on why the charges were filed or why they were delayed nearly a year.

$17.47 million in protest costs, 120+ damage claims

Most charges trace to a June 8, 2025, protest at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where demonstrators confronted California National Guard troops President Trump had deployed that morning. The LAPD declared an unlawful assembly around 9 p.m. and began arresting people.

Over the broader June 7–16, 2025, period, the LAPD made 435 protest-related arrests, including 182 on June 10, 2025, alone, according to a department review covered by the Los Angeles Times in August. Three of every four arrests were for suspicion of unlawful assembly. The department spent $17.47 million in personnel costs during those two weeks, including $12.14 million in overtime.

As of April, more than 120 claims for damages had been filed against the city over police actions during the protests, according to the city attorney's office.

Wolf estimated at least seven warrants have been issued for defendants who failed to appear at arraignments, likely because they did not know charges had been filed. A pending misdemeanor can affect job applications, professional certifications and immigration status, she said.

Lame-duck prosecutor, November runoff ahead

Feldstein Soto lost her reelection bid in the June 2 primary with 18% of the vote, according to Streetsblog LA. It was the first time in more than 90 years an incumbent LA city attorney failed to advance past a primary. The Nov. 3 general election will pit Marissa Roy, a deputy attorney general with the California Department of Justice, against Los Angeles County prosecutor John McKinney. Neither candidate has made a public statement on the protest charges.

Because the cases will likely outlast Feldstein Soto's tenure, the next city attorney will decide whether to continue the prosecutions or drop them. No future court dates for the charged demonstrators have been made public.