FBI Arrest in Downtown Berkeley Was Over Child Sexual Abuse Material, Police Say, Not ICE
The presence of federal agents prompted immigration speculation on social media. Police Chief Jen Louis told the Police Accountability Board the FBI had notified the city in advance, and that BPD had no verified information ICE was in Berkeley that day.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 3 min read
East front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo: Martin Falbisoner / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
The FBI arrested a person suspected of viewing child sexual abuse material at an apartment building in downtown Berkeley on Wednesday, Berkeleyside reported. The presence of federal agents prompted speculation on social media that an immigration investigation was underway.
City police said the FBI investigation had nothing to do with immigration and that, to their knowledge, nobody from ICE had visited the city Wednesday. ICE spokespeople refused to confirm whether they had or had not been there, the newspaper reported. "We have absolutely no verified information that they were in fact in our city," Berkeley police Chief Jen Louis told the Police Accountability Board that day. The FBI arrested its suspect "around that same time and location that the reports of ICE were occurring," and had let BPD know ahead of time that agents would be working in Berkeley, she said.
Sources
This article is an original summary based on the following reporting. We encourage readers to visit the original sources for full coverage.
The day's Bay Area housing, business and neighborhood news, plus the world headlines that matter, in one short email. Free, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
We use your email only to send the Brief. Details in our privacy policy.
Raymond Allen Pearce was arrested near UC Berkeley and charged Friday with contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime, extortion and other counts, police said. A parent reported the case on Oct. 12. The charges are allegations.
Joseph Reindl, 33, was arrested Saturday after stabbings at about 2:56 p.m. and 7:43 p.m. in the courtyard of an apartment building near Shattuck Avenue and 66th Street, police said Tuesday.
Her attorney, Niko De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, said she was released from the California City detention center around 9 p.m. Monday, the day a federal judge ordered ICE to let her go.
The 23-year-old business major and Colombian asylum seeker had been held at the California City Detention Facility. Her attorney said she would be released Monday.
