Documentarian After Being Held by Police for Four Days is Undeterred

“It almost feels surreal seeing the sun. I haven’t seen the sun since Thursday,” Anthony Orendorff said after he was released from custody at the San Fernando Courthouse on Monday, June 23. 

It had been four days since he was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) while documenting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Pacoima, the threat of a misdemeanor battery charge looming over him. But after being released with no charges filed, he walked out in high spirits and was determined to return to the streets. 

“I think this experience tried to break me,” he said. “It tried to separate me from things that I care [about] and I believe in, but getting through the whole process with the ups and downs has definitely replenished what I already believe in and has shaped me in a way where I [now] know the perspectives of what it’s like being locked up.”

Orendorff hails from Reseda and is a well-known activist and videographer in the community. He’s documented many demonstrations throughout LA, including a pro-Palestinian protest held outside the Dolby Theatre during the 97th Academy Awards and anti-ICE protests in LA, capturing moments where the LAPD fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protestors. 

On June 19, when multiple ICE raids swept through the Northeast San Fernando Valley, including at a Lowe’s in Pacoima, Orendorff was one of several who received word of the raids. He went out to capture footage that they could provide to immigration legal services. The first location he went to, ICE had already left after detaining people, so he went to Pacoima next, where he could still see vans belonging to ICE agents.

During this time, officers from the LAPD Foothill Division arrived at the scene to control the growing crowd that came out to protest the raids. At one point during the chaos, Orendorff was all alone when he found himself surrounded by police.

“All I can remember is just being slammed to the ground by nine police officers, a knee on my back and me telling them I couldn’t breathe,” Orendorff recalled. “I told them I wasn’t resisting and [I remember] fearing for my life, and then getting into the [Van Nuys Police] Station and them lying to me about everything, saying I would be released that day. I wasn’t, obviously.”

Separated from Friends and Family

He would spend the next several days in the Van Nuys Police Department Valley Jail Section without bail, before he was transferred to the San Fernando Courthouse on Monday, and faced a misdemeanor battery charge. In California, a person can be held without being formally charged for no more than 48 hours after their arrest. If no charges are filed during that time, the person must be released.

That time, however, excludes weekends and holidays, meaning that if someone was arrested close to the weekend, as was the case with Orendorff, their time in police custody can be extended.

He described his time in jail as “torture,” as he was separated from both his family and community, although he was able to connect with them through phone calls and his lawyers: civil rights attorney Ricci Sergienko and criminal defense attorney Joseph Benincasa. 

While he was held in jail, his attorneys and family, who were able to see him, described how Orendorff had bruises and cuts on his face and arms. By the time he was released, no physical injuries were visible, causing some to question if that was a reason he was kept for days in custody. Orendorff did not provide details on who or what caused his injuries.

On Monday, the charge against Orendorff was rejected and he was released. Although he expressed joy in regaining his freedom, he said the feeling was bittersweet because there were so many people inside the jail who weren’t as fortunate.

“I talked to so many people who were incarcerated and they had nobody,” he said. Although he was in a cell, Orendorff continued to connect with others being held and he listened to their stories.

“I was in the cage with a bunch of men who were crying for the first time because they got someone that can actually listen to them, that showed compassion,” he continued. “To show compassion in the cage is radical and it’s revolutionary because a lot of us are taught to fight each other, but we were really listening to each other. We were healing.”

Orendorff is eager to get back onto the streets, although it will be some time until then, as he’s left the valley for South Africa on a work trip. He thinks the experience will not only be a good breather for him, but will let him learn from other people how they resist and how they tell their stories, which will help his work when he returns to the United States.

“Shout out to all the journalists here. We still got to fight for people being separated,” Orendorff said. “Being separated from your family is torture, and that’s what’s happening right now in our streets. That’s what I was trying to document and show what’s going on to the world. … That’s what we got to fight for – to keep families together.”

Fervent Community Support

While Orendorff was physically separated from his community and family, he certainly wasn’t forgotten by them. As soon as they learned that he had been arrested, they began to organize, demanding his release. 

His supporters contacted several local elected officials, including LA City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and Mayor Karen Bass, and held a rally on June 20 outside the Van Nuys Jail. His family held a press conference the next day at the same place, where several dozen community activists came out in support. 

They loudly chanted “Free free Anthony,” the walls of the jail thin enough for him to hear the chants from his cell, and waved signs that read “Free Ant.” A drawing of Orendorff surrounded by sunflowers was also made on a large piece of cloth that included the phrase he says in many of his videos: “Let’s go talk to the people.”

“My brother was brave to sacrifice his own safety to report the truth, but he is not a sacrifice,” Carla Orendorff, a community activist and Anthony Orendorff’s sister, said during Saturday’s press conference. 

“He is being held without bail, as a political case, to be made an example of. And this sets a very dangerous precedent for anyone who considers themselves a journalist, anyone who considers themselves a storyteller, anyone who is reporting on the ground about what is happening right now.”

She condemned Rodriguez, who, after the raid in Pacoima, put out a video with City of San Fernando Vice Mayor Mary Solorio on social media, where the latter said that LAPD is there to keep people safe. Carla Orendorff called the move a “political calculation.” The activist added that Rodriguez said her brother’s arrest was “out of her jurisdiction,” although it occurred within her district.

Others who called her office said they had a similar experience. “I was told abruptly it was a federal matter when I called Rodriguez’s Office,” said Minerva Garcia. “Rodriguez doesn’t give a (expletive).”

Carla Orendorff shared similarly harsh feelings towards LA City Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who she said has been “ping-ponging” with Rodriguez’s office on who takes responsibility for her brother’s arrest. The Orendorff family and their supporters also protested in front of the Getty House, where Bass lives, to demand Anthony Orendorff’s release; they’d hoped she would come out and talk with them, but the mayor, with her driver, quickly left the home.

“I am so angry about what is happening all around us,” Carla Orendorff said. “I feel lucky that I know where my brother happens to be because that is not a luxury that families who’ve been separated by ICE have right now. There are families who have no idea where their loved ones are, and that is the terror that we’re living with day in and day out.”

When Anthony Orendorff was moved from Van Nuys to the San Fernando Courthouse on June 23, his family and dozens of supporters waited in the cafeteria for hours to learn how the case would play out. As the afternoon rolled around, his lawyers came into the room with the news they had been anxiously waiting for: the city attorney would not file charges and he would be released, much to their joy. 

While the defense attorneys can’t definitively say it was the large show of support that ultimately got Anthony Orendorff released, they do believe it played a factor.

“It’s a sad reality that there’s a lot of cases that get filed that shouldn’t because there aren’t people standing up and saying this is wrong,” said Benincasa, a criminal defense lawyer. “This was a more public case. … City attorneys, district attorneys, cops – they’re people. They don’t want to get in your face and disappoint you. You don’t want to stand in front of 70 people and tell them the thing they don’t want to hear. You don’t want that backlash.”

He added that he can’t remember a time in his 18-year career when charges were not filed against someone after their case was originally referred to file. 

Although the case is now over, Sergienko is open to continuing to represent the family should they choose to file a lawsuit against the LAPD, which he said is likely to happen.

“We will explore all options available about that and if it feels like there’s some kind of action that can be brought against them,” Sergienko said. “I can’t say for certain I will continue to be Anthony’s attorney in a civil suit, I just know that … it’s something we’re going to assess and see what possibilities are there.”