Biography
Luis Dalhet Hipolito is a U.S. citizen arrested during a federal immigration enforcement operation in downtown Los Angeles on June 24, 2025. Prosecutors charged him with assaulting a federal officer. His defense said he believed masked men were abducting Andrea Velez and acted to protect her, and that he acted in self-defense after agents struck and pepper-sprayed him. He was detained and released on $10,000 bond. A federal jury later acquitted him of the assault charge.
The June 25, 2025 complaint, case 2:25-mj-03896-DUTY, individually describes Hipolito’s June 24 arrest and transport for processing and records that he had been using a phone to record the immigration-enforcement encounter. The affiant alleged that he punched an officer after being pepper-sprayed; this is the prosecution’s initial account, not a judicial finding, and does not displace the existing defense account or later jury acquittal. The application also sought a search of seized phones and biometric unlocking; a warrant request is not proof of the requested search’s execution. No new custody duration is established. Source: https://www.nacdl.org/getattachment/f45a6e8b-7027-4bf2-916f-92f103dd76ef/1-gov-uscourts-cacd-979964-1-0.pdf#page=6
The government’s March 27, 2026 trial memorandum reports that the court denied its request to preclude a self-defense claim, permitting the defense to make the required initial showing. It also records release on bond before trial and the dismissal, on the government’s motion, of Andrea Velez’s complaint. The memorandum’s anticipated prosecution evidence and twenty-year statutory maximum are not a conviction or sentence and do not displace the later recorded acquittal. Source: https://www.nacdl.org/getattachment/96bcbe1b-d52b-4d40-851a-1e42e4890cef/gov-uscourts-cacd-979964-63-0.pdf#page=9
