A former San Diego County-based U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of sexual misconduct while on duty was ordered Friday to stand trial on sexual battery and false imprisonment charges.
Prosecutors allege Juan Angel Prishker, 45, who has since resigned from the agency, groped one woman after she was detained and showed a picture of his genitals to multiple other people, all while he was in uniform and acting under his capacity as a law enforcement officer.
At a preliminary hearing to determine whether Prishker could face a trial on several criminal counts filed against him last fall, a San Diego Superior Court judge ordered him bound over on felony sexual battery and false imprisonment counts, but dismissed four misdemeanor counts of distributing obscene matter.
Prishker’s defense attorney, Kerry Armstrong, said his client worked for the Border Patrol for almost 19 years.
One of the named victims in the criminal complaint, identified only as Jane Doe 1 in court, testified Friday through a Spanish-speaking interpreter that she was detained while attempting to cross into the United States in December 2022.
Two immigration officers handed her off to Prishker, who told her to put her hands on his vehicle.
She complied, and Prishker searched her and in the process, reached underneath her bra and groped her breasts, she testified.
Another woman standing next to her had also been detained and was searched in a similar fashion, according to Jane Doe 1. She said she also saw Prishker reach under that woman’s shirt and that the other woman appeared “uncomfortable.”
Another named victim in the complaint, Karen Parker, has also filed a lawsuit against Prishker and the federal government.
Parker, a retired social worker who volunteers with migrants, testified Friday that she was in the Jacumba area in December 2023 assisting migrants who had recently crossed into the United States.
She was seeking assistance from nearby Border Patrol personnel for a woman who required medical attention and located Prishker, who she’d met on prior occasions.
While speaking with him, Prishker allegedly said he wanted to show her something and showed her two pictures on his cellphone of his genitals, according to Parker.
She testified that she started to back away from him, but he moved around her and momentarily blocked her from leaving. Parker said that while he did this, he kept his hand resting on the butt of his unholstered weapon.
While Judge David Berry found there was enough evidence for a jury to decide the false imprisonment allegations involving Parker, he dismissed counts associated with Prishker allegedly showing pictures of his genitals to Parker, as well as a group of internet personalities in a video previously posted on YouTube.
The video, titled “Exposing a PERVERTED Border Patrol Agent!” has since been removed from YouTube. It featured Prishker in uniform, but with his face blurred. The unedited version of the video played in court showed Prishker and the people — two men and a woman — exchanging sexual remarks. Prishker then shows them his phone and the people state that it was a picture of his genitals.
Berry ruled that the misdemeanor counts pertaining to the picture should be dismissed because the picture does not rise to the legal definition of obscene matter, which he said requires depictions of sexual activity.
Prishker remains out of custody on his own recognizance.
