A local activist who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault count for pulling a federal agent’s mask off in Linda Vista last year was sentenced Thursday to 45 days of home detention.
Jeane Wong, 56, was among a group of people arrested at a Linda Vista apartment complex on July 2, 2025, when federal agents had taken a Guatemalan man into custody.
Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison sentence for Wong, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Evangeline Athena Dech describing the incident as a “deliberate assault” on an agent from Homeland Security Investigations that “crossed the clear and unmistakable line between expression and criminal conduct.”
At her sentencing hearing on Thursday in federal court, Wong said the agent grabbed and pushed her just before she pulled his mask off.
“I acted in confusion, not malice,” said Wong, but she added that she was “prepared to take responsibility for that moment.”
A video recorded at the scene captured Wong and others arguing with agents from opposite sides of a stretch of police tape. At one point, a HSI agent puts his hands on Wong and she pulls his mask down.
Her plea agreement states that Wong “struck” the agent in the face, though Wong’s attorney, Hector Tomayo, called any physical contact between Wong and the agent “minimal” and described prosecutors’ accounts of the events as “exaggerated.”
The attorney also took issue with statements made by the agent, Matt Hogan, during the hearing.
Hogan did not appear in person, but delivered a statement remotely, in which he described the protesters as a “group of privileged, liberal extremists cosplaying as social justice warriors” and said “the only reason (agents) choose to wear masks is to protect their children and families from the actions of deranged lunatics like Ms. Wong.”
Tomayo argued those comments showed a “political motive” behind Hogan’s account of the events and were “indicative of his prejudice and his lack of objectivity as to what happened.”
Dech, the prosecutor, also alleged Wong had engaged in “assaultive conduct” while on pre-trial release.
The incidents, though, involved a sit-in and Wong lending her car to another protester.
The latter case was referenced in Wong’s plea agreement, which states that she lent her vehicle to someone in December for the purpose of following an HSI officer. Another incident was a sit-in at San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s office in January, which saw Wong and five others arrested.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard rejected the prosecution’s recommended sentence, imposing one just above the 30 days of home confinement requested by Wong’s attorney.
The judge said there wasn’t an “excuse for making any contact with an officer,” but credited Wong for her work in activism.
“It looks to me like you’ve spent your life trying to help people who have been marginalized or unserved by the institutions in our society and I definitely appreciate that,” Goddard said.
Wong initially faced a felony assault charge, but pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor count earlier this year.
The case is pending for another protester arrested at the scene, Trina Rupley, with a hearing scheduled for next week.
Prosecutors had charged the Guatemalan man and another protester with assault, but dismissed both cases.
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