On the Morning of Monday 8/10, three members of Dare to Struggle, “the Rundberg 3,” were surveilled on their way to court by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Once they got to court, two of them were wrongfully arrested.
On 7/27, Travis County issued warrants for the Rundberg 3. The warrants stemmed from an incident on 7/19 during which the Rundberg 3 confronted ICE agents that attempted to kidnap Ever Daniel Velazquez, his pregnant partner, and her 6-year old child in the Rundberg area. During the altercation with ICE, the agents repeatedly slammed one of the anrestees against the car, and threw them onto the ground. The agents subsequently maced everyone, including the pregnant woman and her 6-year-old daughter. Worried for the safety of his family, Ever courageously decided to drive a block away to their apartment to tend to his and his families injuries. DPS recklessly sped after them, reaching them at their home and tackling Ever at gunpoint, knocking him unconscious. The Rundberg 3 are charged with interfering with public duties, a class B misdemeanor, while Ever is charged with evading arrest with a vehicle.
At no point, from the incident on July 19th to their arrest in court on August 10th, did the Rundberg 3 identify themselves to any official. It’s thus very likely that facial recognition technology or another form of surveillance was used to identify them in order to generate the warrants and make the arrests. The Rundberg 3 were never notified of the warrants and only found out a week later, on 8/3, after one of them, Emilio Verdooren, received an ad from a law office that notified him of a warrant for his arrest. The three spoke to multiple attorneys, and made a plan with their retained counsel to file paperwork and appear before the court to recall their warrants and post bond without being arrested. This is a very common legal practice known as a walkthrough, through which hundreds of people are processed through Travis County every day.
One of the Rundberg 3 received a summons for Monday 8/10. Their attorney, George Lobb, recommended all three appear at court to do the walkthrough for those who didn’t receive a summons. When Verdooren and Hurtado, the two who did not receive summons, arrived at the court, they noticed a plain clothed Texas State Trooper in the waiting area staring at them. Their lawyer said the presence of the officer indicated DPS was aware they would be at the courthouse that day. It is likely DPS followed their movements, pinged their cellphones, or surveilled their messages to obtain this information.
Moments before they were to be granted an audience before a judge, Travis County Sheriff’s Office arrested both Verdooren and Hurtado in the waiting room of the courthouse, something that the attorney has “never seen before.” They weren’t told why they were being arrested and the department denied all of Lobb’s requests to explain why his clients were arrested while he was finalizing common legal procedures for clearing warrants. Lobb also stated that he believes that DPS asked the Sheriff’s office to arrest them. One department asking another to arrest someone on their behalf is outside of normal procedure.
Following their arrest, Lobb immediately submitted paperwork to waive Verdooren and Hurtado’s requirement to see a judge or post bond. This paperwork sat on a desk for over four hours after their arrest, preventing Lobb from posting bond as a result of Hurtado and Verdooren “not being in custody.”
Travis County Sheriff’s Office ignored and subsequently stalled a common legal process to harass and target the Rundberg 3 for standing against ICE and the mass deportation machine. DPS vindictively filed petty charges against them more than a week after the incident, and then surveilled their movements. These are further attempts to intimidate and target them for daring to stand up to ICE. We are asking for you to expose this case of political repression. Join the demand to drop the charges for the Rundberg 3 and free Ever Daniel Velazquez. Sign your organizations’s support to Drop the Charges on the form below!
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