A federal judge has dismissed an indictment accusing a popular TikTok creator of assaulting a federal officer during a traffic stop in Los Angeles in which an ICE officer shot him earlier this year.
U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin said in a Saturday order that he dismissed the case because Carlitos Ricardo Parias was denied access to a lawyer while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and because the government failed to provide pre-trial discovery material, including body-worn camera footage, to the defense in a timely manner. Parias also had been charged with causing injury to government property.
“In short, because the deprivation of Mr. Parias’s access to counsel during the critical period prior to his trial caused him actual and threatened prejudice, and because no other remedy could adequately cure his deprivation, the court agrees with defendant that dismissal of the indictment is warranted,” Olguin’s order said.
During the Oct. 21 traffic stop that happened shortly after Parias left his home, officials alleged Parias, known on TikTok as Richard Noticias LA or Richard LA, drove his car into law enforcement vehicles and tried to get away, the Department of Homeland Security said previously.
DHS officials also alleged Parias was an undocumented immigrant who previously escaped custody and that’s why they tried to pull him over.
During the traffic stop, federal immigration officers fired weapons, hitting Parias in the elbow, and a ricocheting bullet also hit a U.S. deputy marshal in the hand, said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.
Prior to his arrest, Parias posted videos and livestreams throughout Los Angeles in Spanish, often showing law enforcement responses and arrests. Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price’s office before the arrest had recognized Parias for his reporting. He also provided information about services such as food assistance programs and toy giveaways, said Jose Ugarte, Price’s chief of staff.
DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the dismissed indictment.
According to the court order, Parias had left his home and was driving down the street when federal officers boxed his vehicle in, got out of their vehicles and surrounded his car. The federal officers tried to break the car’s windows as its wheels spun and clouds of smoke came out, the court order said.
DHS officials accused Parias of ramming his car into federal officers’ vehicles after they had surrounded him.
An officer reached into the broken front passenger window after the vehicle’s wheels stopped turning with a gun in one hand while trying to open the door with the other, according to the court order. The officer talked with Parias before shooting him in the arm, the court order said.
Parias and the deputy marshal were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening.
About a month after his arrest, he was released from the U.S. Marshals’ custody and into the custody of ICE. He was then transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
Two days after Parias was brought to Adelanto, his counsel filed a declaration regarding the challenges to Parias’ access to lawyers at the facility, including the two-hour drive his lawyers had to make from Downtown Los Angeles to the detention facility and difficulty scheduling an in-person or virtual visit with their client, according to the court order.
Parias’ counsel said that, within three weeks of his first trial date, they weren’t able to schedule a legal visit with their client in the two weeks that he had been in ICE detention, according to the court order.
The defense team also requested initial discovery three days before Parias’ detention hearing on Oct. 31, asking for relevant surveillance videos and Parias’ administrative arrest warrant, among other things, according to the court order.
“Inexplicably, the government informed defense counsel that it would not produce any requested material in advance of the October 31, 2025, detention hearing,” the court order said. “In fact, the government did not produce any discovery until November 26, 2025, nearly a month after defendant made his initial discovery requests.”
The government continued to produce discovery beyond set deadlines, the court order said, including providing body-worn camera footage from the officer who shot Parias five days after the discovery cut-off.
