LA COURTHOUSE, July 17 – United States v.
Palermo is the federal case arising from the June 8, 2025
alleged attack on California Highway Patrol officers
trapped beneath the Main Street overpass on the 101
Freeway during Los Angeles's anti-ICE protests.
Prosecutors say the defendants lit
cardboard, vegetation, and fireworks on fire and dropped
them onto CHP vehicles below, setting one ablaze. A
Superseding Indictment in November 2025 brought the total
to nine defendants, all now before Judge John F. Walter.
Six defendants have pleaded guilty this
spring, including Roldan, to misdemeanor simple assault,
capped at one year. Sentencing is now underway case by
case, with real disagreement over the numbers — Roldan's
own sentencing memorandum seeks roughly 18 months'
equivalent relief, while DOJ has pressed for far longer
terms for co-defendants facing the felony counts.
On July 13, Roldan obtained a same-day
order sealing Exhibit C to his sentencing memorandum — no
public reasoning, no findings, nothing. Inner City Press
does not know what the exhibit contains and does not
speculate here.
What is known is the law, confirmed by Lee
v Greenwood in the Second Circuit: sentencing exhibits are
judicial documents at the heart of the presumption of
public access, because they help determine how long
someone goes to prison for a case that began with a
protest against federal immigration enforcement and ended
with a burning patrol car. Under Ninth Circuit precedent,
sealing requires compelling reasons and specific findings
— not silence, and not an unreasoned same-day order.
So Inner City Press moved to intervene,
asking the Court to unseal the order and require a
redacted public version of the exhibit if genuine
sensitivities exist within it.
On July 16 Inner City Press' motion to
unseal was docketed
as Dkt. No. 356 in the Roldan/Palermo case -
followed by a notice, not from the judge, about proper
parties. So it was resubmitted personally, amid this:
"SENTENCING held before Judge John F. Walter. Defendant, Ronald Alexis Coreas is hereby placed on probation on Count 1 of the First Superseding Information for a term of 4 years. Special assessment $25. Restitution $126,707.62. All fines waived. On the Government's Motion, the Court orders the underlying First Superseding Indictment dismissed as to this defendant only."
The motions are now before Judge Walter,
seeking to unseal the order that granted sealing of
Roldan's Exhibit C, and to require a public, redacted
version of the exhibit itself if genuine sensitivities
remain within it. Inner City Press will report on the
Court's response, and on how this case — which began with
a burning patrol car beneath the Main Street overpass
during last year's anti-ICE protests — proceeds. Watch
this site.
