LOS ANGELES — A California philosophy lecturer accused of assaulting federal agents after removing a tear gas canister agents had thrown into a crowd of people protesting an immigration raid was found not guilty by a jury on Thursday.

Jonathan Caravello, 38, faced up to 20 years in prison if he was convicted of the charge. The verdict is the latest blow to the Trump administration, which has thrown baseless assault charges at people who protest its mass deportation operations — but has repeatedly failed to secure convictions.

By the government’s own admission, no federal agent was hit or harmed by the canister, which flew over the heads of agents and landed far behind them. Prosecutors argued instead that Caravello threatened and intended to harm agents, although they failed to identify a specific individual who was supposedly at risk of being harmed. Caravello’s attorney presented evidence that U.S. Border Patrol agents deployed tear gas indiscriminately at peaceful protesters and observers without reason or warning, and that Caravello was acting in self-defense when he threw the canister away from the crowd.

The jury returned their verdict after roughly two hours of deliberation. They found Caravello not guilty of assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, as well as a lesser included offense of assault on a federal officer.

Speaking to his supporters outside the courthouse after the verdict, Caravello said he had no intention of hitting anyone with the tear gas canister, and that he would continue protecting his community.

“I’m tired of these sorts of raids happening. Them kidnapping, abducting people — and then indiscriminately using weapons against us. They’re armed to the teeth. We have no weapons, we are not violent, we don’t hurt them, we don’t kill ICE agents. We don’t do any of that shit. We do none of it,” he said.

“The least we should be able to do is throw a fucking tear gas canister away from us.”

The case stemmed from a July 10 immigration raid at Glass House Farms, a cannabis farm in Camarillo, California. The raid marked an early demonstration of the brutality of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda: Federal agents arrested at least 361 immigrants across two Glass House facilities and one worker, 56-year-old Jaime Alanis García, fell from a 30-foot roof after calling his family to telling them he was hiding from federal agents. He died days later.

Caravello, an active member of his labor and tenants union, had been participating in patrols to monitor and respond to immigration raids in his community. By the time he heard about the Glass House raid, federal agents had blocked off the road leading to the facility, his former student, Angelmarie Taylor, who was with him at the raid, previously told HuffPost. People gathered near the blockade, trying to get information about their loved ones who were trapped inside. Over the course of several hours, the crowd documented and protested the unfolding raid. Agents deployed rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas into the crowd, which included children and elderly community members.

Around 12:50 p.m., a Border Patrol agent threw a tear gas canister that landed near Caravello. After an unsuccessful attempt to kick it away from the crowd, he picked it up and threw it in a high arc over the heads of the federal agents. Although the canister did not hit or injure any agent, Caravello was arrested later that day and eventually charged with assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous or deadly weapon.

The jury selection process on Tuesday provided a glimpse into the strong opposition to the federal government’s anti-immigration policies in Los Angeles county, which is nearly 50% Hispanic or Latino, and has been terrorized by immigration raids since last summer. Of the pool of more than 60 potential jurors, about 20 said they had participated in protests. Several described being personally at risk from immigration agents or having family members deported. When U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valanzuela asked the potential jurors if any of them had opinions of Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, or the federal government that would prevent them from being an impartial juror, at least 10 voiced concerns.

“I just don’t like them. I don’t like their morals,” said one potential juror.

If someone was throwing tear gas at federal agents, “I might applaud them,” another said.

“I would want to crucify them,” said a third, referring to the federal government.

Throughout the trial, federal prosecutors went out of their way to avoid describing the role of immigration enforcement in the case. They described the Glass House immigration raid as federal agents conducting a lawful search warrant related to illegal labor practices. They argued that protesters put federal agents at risk by tipping off the targets of the search warrant and giving them time to hide evidence or lie in wait to attack agents.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Hsieh, the lead prosecutor on the case, is the chief of the major frauds section in the Central District of California and has prosecuted multimillion-dollar fraud cases. His work on the case shows the level of resources the federal government is putting into politically motivated prosecutions against protesters.

The government’s case centered around testimony from Shawn Hinca and Rafael Cortez, Border Patrol Mobile Response Team agents who are based in Ohio but conducted crowd control at the Camarillo raid.

Throughout their testimony, they struggled to thread seemingly conflicting arguments. Tear gas, when thrown by armed federal agents wearing helmets, gas masks, protective eye wear and bulletproof vests at unarmed protesters, constitutes a “less lethal” weapon and is a necessary crowd control tool, they testified. But when a protester throws the same tear gas canister back over the heads of agents — even in such a way that causes no harm to the agents — it constitutes felony assault with a deadly or dangerous weapon, they said.

The government’s depiction of the events of July 10 were repeatedly contradicted by federal agents’ own body-camera footage. The government argued that Caravello showed he intended to assault agents when he yelled, “Put that fucking canister back in your pants. Throw it right back in your fucking face.” But the footage clearly shows Caravello aiming the canister over the heads and to the side of the agents in front of him.

The footage also showed the agents laughing over their use of tear gas and celebrating so-called Triple-Chaser canisters as “fucking awesome.” Minutes before Cortez deployed the tear gas canister that Caravello threw, he rejected a suggestion from another agent to create a diversion to move protesters away from the road and called for more tear gas.

“We’ll fucking gas the shit out of them like we did earlier,” Cortez said.

Prosecutors presented a Triple-Chaser tear gas canister as evidence and elicited testimony from Border Patrol agents describing the canister as the size of a Coke can and capable of breaking cheekbones, nose and teeth. On cross-examination, however, one of the agents admitted that the actual canister thrown by Caravello was a pocket tear gas canister, which is smaller and lighter. Prosecutors also argued that Caravello’s overhand throw was particularly dangerous, although body-camera footage shows a federal agent throwing a tear gas canister at protesters overhand.

The Border Patrol agents testified that they needed to deploy tear gas at protesters to clear the road for Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles to get through, but their bodycam footage showed them throwing canisters at protesters who were not blocking traffic, well after the vehicles had passed through the crowd.

Caravello’s attorney Knut Johnson called three witnesses who were present at the protest outside of Glass House Farms. The first, migrant justice worker Noemi Tungüi, said she went to Glass House to support members of her community who were trying to get answers about loved ones impacted by the raid. She stayed until 3 a.m., assisting community members.

Tungüi described federal agents as “really aggressive” and “unprofessional.” She testified that she was hit with tear gas three times, causing her to struggle to breathe and experience bubbling on her skin for days. She still has scars on her forehead, she said, and worries about reproductive issues related to her exposure to the gas. She described Caravello as “bravely” trying to protect community members when he threw the canister away from the crowd.

Another witness, retired CSU Channel Islands chemistry lecturer Nancy Deans, testified that her skin burned so badly from exposure to “chemical weapons” that she drove home in only her bra.

In his closing argument, Johnson argued that not only was his client innocent, but that Border Patrol agents were, in fact, the ones assaulting protesters. He criticized the government’s “sloppy prosecution,” “utter nonsense” testimony from Cortez, and accused federal agents of lying to jurors in their testimony.

“This case should never have been filed. He never should have been dragged through this. And I’m sad they did,” Johnson told Huffpost after the trial.

Each day of the three-day trial, the courtroom filled with community members. Current and former students and colleagues from CSU Channel Islands, made the 70-mile trip to the downtown Los Angeles courtroom. Members of Caravello’s labor union, the California Faculty Association, from various universities and Los Angeles-area students who had heard about the case also came to show support for the professor.

As Caravello exited the courthouse on Thursday evening, his supporters erupted into a chant of, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated.”

Caravello thanked his legal team, which took his case on pro bono; his colleagues; students; friends; and twin brother, who put up Caravello’s surety bond and flew in from Arizona for the trial.

“He always said, ‘You be part of the movement, if you ever get in trouble, I’ll bail you out,’” Caravello said of his brother.

“And he did!” the crowd cheered.

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