Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Villarreal Immunity Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Priscilla Villarreal, a Texas-based online citizen journalist known as La Gordiloca, effectively upholding a lower court's decision that shields police officers and prosecutors from her lawsuit over a 2017 arrest in Laredo. The ruling leaves in place a determination that the officials involved are protected by qualified immunity, despite Villarreal's claims that the arrest violated her First Amendment rights.

Villarreal, who runs a popular Facebook page with more than 200,000 followers focused on local crime, events and government in Laredo, was arrested in August 2017 on two felony counts of misuse of official information. Authorities accused her of soliciting nonpublic details from a police officer about two incidents: the suicide of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a car crash involving a family. She had verified the information through the officer and published the victims' identities on her page. Prosecutors alleged that her intent was to gain a benefit, specifically by increasing her Facebook followers, in violation of a Texas statute that criminalizes obtaining undisclosed government information for personal gain.