The moment a California mayor allegedly accused a stranger of being an ICE agent after following him in her car has been caught on video.
Maria Pacheco, the mayor of Kerman, near Fresno, allegedly followed hairstylist Eric Bridges for 25 minutes in her car, boxed in his vehicle and took photos of him before saying he looked like an ICE agent.
Bridges detailed the alleged blunder in a written complaint against the mayor filed with the Fresno Police Department and the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office.
‘I am not, nor have I ever been, an employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security,’ Bridges wrote. He also said he wants to press charges against Pacheco.
Bridges said that the mayor stalked and circled his car in a park on October 14 before following him to his sister’s house in Fresno.
Pacheco called the accusations ‘ridiculous’ in a statement to the Fresno Bee and added: ‘If he wants to go to court, then we’ll go to court. That’s all I can say.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Bridges’s attorney and Pacheco for comment.
Surveillance footage from the sister’s home shows Pacheco’s orange Nissan circling a cul-de-sac before stopping next to Bridges’s vehicle. The two can be heard speaking inaudibly in the video before Bridges shouted, ‘I look like I’m ICE?!’
Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco has been accused of harassing a Fresno hairstylist named Eric Bridges by following him around and accusing him of being an ICE agent
Pacheco allegedly told Bridges, ‘Don’t worry about who I am, I’m someone important,’ when he asked who she was. The mayor is pictured in her car during the encounter
Surveillance footage captured Pacheco following Bridges to his sister’s home before she allegedly told him: ‘I’m looking for ICE, and you look like ICE’
A few seconds later, he can be heard saying ‘Who the f*** are you?’ before Pacheco drives away. In his complaint, Bridges said he also asked if she was with the police or the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The mayor’s response could not be heard in the video, but Bridges said in his complaint that Pacheco stated: ‘Don’t worry about who I am, I’m someone important.’
The mayor also allegedly told the hairstylist that he was ‘in [her] hood driving an unmarked car,’ and allegedly said: ‘I’m looking for ICE, and you look like ICE.’
Bridges wrote in his complaint that he ‘was absolutely astounded by the accusation that I resemble an immigration officer.’
He also claimed that after he denied being an ICE agent, Pacheco gave him the middle finger and sped off.
A video he took with his phone shows the mayor driving off with a smirk as Bridges said: ‘B**** don’t ever in yo f***ing life follow me, you weird a** b****.’
Bridges said he believes Pacheco was trying to score political points by following him and claiming he was an ICE agent, as she has performed similar stunts with immigration officers in Kerman that performed well on social media.
Indeed, a video the mayor took in which she tells an apparent ICE agent, ‘My name is Maria Pacheco. I’m the mayor for the City of Kerman, and you’re not welcome in my city,’ received 98,000 views on Facebook.
Bridges (pictured) said in his complaint that he ‘was absolutely astounded by the accusation that I resemble an immigration officer’
Bridges said Pacheco likely falsely accused him to score political points. Pacheco is running for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors
Bridges said in his complaint that he and his family are ‘deeply fearful for reprisals’ from the mayor, and that his encounter with Pacheco was a ‘malicious attempt to falsely accuse civilians of having ties to ICE for her own political gain.’
Pacheco is running to for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to represent District 1. The position would be a higher public office than mayor of a small city like Kerman.
Bridges’s attorney, Roger Bonakdar, told FOX26 that Pacheco was livestreaming part of the encounter and told viewers that Bridges was an ICE agent.
Bonakdar said his client has faced threats as a result, including people telling Bridges that they are ‘going to come for him,’ and that he is not welcome at his grandchildren’s soccer game.
The attorney told the outlet that his client is requesting that Pacheco be investigated for potential charges of stalking and false imprisonment.
‘My client’s hoping for full accountability, both through the public integrity unit to send a message that citizens are not a trampoline for political candidates,’ Bonakdar said. ‘You can’t put people in harm’s way because you want social media clout.’
As of Tuesday, there are no criminal charges related to the incident.
