A South Los Angeles woman accused of staging a fake immigration kidnapping to collect sympathy donations is expected to plead guilty to a single federal conspiracy count in Los Angeles federal court. Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, described in court filings as a 42-year-old South Los Angeles resident, had been fighting the case since last year, when she first pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers.
From Not Guilty to a Plea Deal
Calderon's reversal comes more than a year after her arraignment, where, according to NBC Los Angeles, a trial date of October 21 was set. Prosecutors have said throughout the case that Calderon's story of being abducted by masked men was entirely fabricated and designed to generate sympathy and solicit donations, as reported by the same outlet.
The saga began when Calderon's daughter set up a GoFundMe page seeking $4,500, writing that her mother had been taken by masked men in an unmarked vehicle while on her way to work. GoFundMe later pulled the fundraiser and refunded the $80 it had collected, explaining that the organizer never had access to the money, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A Jack in the Box Parking Lot and a Warehouse Claim
Calderon's family attorney offered a very different account at the time, saying she had been kidnapped days earlier at a Jack in the Box parking lot and driven to San Ysidro, where she was presented to an ICE staffer with voluntary self-deportation paperwork. The attorney said Calderon refused to sign the documents and demanded to speak with a judge and a lawyer, and further claimed federal agents then punished her and sent her to an undisclosed warehouse where she was abused. That attorney was unavailable for immediate comment when the story resurfaced, the outlet's report noted.
Investigators said they grew concerned after confirming Calderon was not actually in immigration custody, and Department of Homeland Security personnel searched for her over the July 4 holiday weekend. On July 5, agents tracked her down in a shopping plaza parking lot in Bakersfield, per NBC Los Angeles's reporting, even as she continued to claim masked men had taken her and held her alongside others.
Surveillance Footage and a Planned Press Conference
Prosecutors said video surveillance and telephone records bolstered their suspicions that Calderon had fabricated the entire story, with footage reportedly showing her leaving the Jack in the Box parking lot and getting into a nearby sedan rather than being forced into one. Court papers further indicate she created fabricated photos depicting her own rescue and apparent abuse while supposedly in federal immigration custody, and that she had planned to hold a press conference to boost GoFundMe donations and obtain other benefits.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has said that news conference drew media attention and stoked community fear, and that Calderon and her family knew law enforcement was searching for her, claiming they feared for her safety but never came forward. The Department of Homeland Security has described Calderon as a Mexican national living in the country illegally and said the hoax was intended to malign the administration's immigration enforcement efforts.
Officials Call It a Well-Orchestrated Conspiracy
A DHS official said at the time that Calderon was never arrested or kidnapped by ICE or by bounty hunters, accusing her of scamming Americans out of money and diverting department resources, and saying she would face justice while media outlets and politicians who amplified her claims should be embarrassed. Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said rhetoric suggesting ICE agents were kidnapping immigrants was being peddled to inflame the public and discredit federal agents, describing the alleged scheme as a well-orchestrated conspiracy and warning that the defendant and others involved would face the full consequences under federal law.
The case unfolded amid what the Los Angeles Times described as an ongoing White House immigration crackdown that had swept up hundreds of immigrants and sown fear across the region, a backdrop prosecutors say made Calderon's false claims especially damaging to public trust in federal agencies.
Potential Sentence and a Co-Defendant's Case
Prosecutors have said Calderon could face up to five years in federal prison at sentencing if her plea is accepted, though at least one other outlet, 13WHAM, has described the maximum exposure as up to five years for each of the two charges she originally faced. A co-defendant in the case, Yvette Estrada, has already pleaded guilty to a federal charge and is expected to be sentenced on November 30.
