$425,000 Claim Filed After Mistaken Arrest
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Attorneys for Cypress Park activist Art Pulido on Wednesday filed a claim seeking $425,000 from the city of Los Angeles after he was mistakenly detained by U.S. immigration agents who said they thought he was a criminal alien from Mexico.
On Sept. 10, Pulido was about to lead a meeting of the Cypress Park Advisory Council to discuss complaints about the athletic programs at the Cypress Park Recreation Center when INS agents, aided by Los Angeles police officers, took Pulido into custody. Authorities said later that they believed he was Arturo Pulido, an illegal immigrant with a long history of violent offenses.
When the Immigration and Naturalization Service agents discovered their mistake, Pulido, 44, was taken back to the meeting site.
Humberto Guizar, one of Pulido’s attorneys, said the claim names the Police Department because it was learned that the immigration agents arrested Pulido on a tip from the LAPD. Guizar said that is a violation of one the Police Department’s rules that prohibit officers from initiating an arrest to determine a person’s immigration status.
Pulido contended that “members of the LAPD were directly involved” in an effort to silence Pulido because of his criticisms of city services in Cypress Park.
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