By Michele Evans / NYweeklyRecord.com / Date: 10/10/2026
Category: Federal Courts / Civil Rights / Government Accountability / Public Safety
NEW YORK CITY, NY –
A federal judge has ruled that immigration agents illegally arrested the wrong men in the Bronx, then used false records and misleading sworn testimony to defend what they had done.
The October 5 ruling came from U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown in the case of Angel Jesus Almonte, a Dominican immigrant arrested during a May 6 ICE operation in Norwood. Minutes later, the same team arrested Jeury Concepcion, a U.S. citizen who suffered a head injury requiring stitches, according to the court.
Agents were looking for two other men. The person they claimed to have mistaken for Almonte was five inches shorter and 80 pounds lighter, court records show. The team leader acknowledged under questioning that photographs made it easy to see they were different people.
Brown found that the arrests were procedurally deficient and legally invalid. His 28-page order said ICE issued a post-arrest administrative warrant containing false information and that agents later offered inconsistent, false and misleading testimony.
The judge also rejected testimony that agents had watched Almonte conduct repeated drug sales. No drugs, cash or paraphernalia were found, the arrest report did not mention drug activity and government lawyers had previously told the court they had no information linking him to narcotics, the decision says.
The warrant claimed federal databases and biometric checks had confirmed Almonte’s identity and immigration status. Brown wrote that those assertions were false. A supervisor acknowledged that five database searches initially returned no match.
Team leader John Katepodis also certified that he personally served the warrant on Almonte in the Bronx and read it to him in Spanish. At the hearing, he admitted he never had the document, according to the ruling.
The government may challenge the judge’s findings. The Department of Homeland Security told Gothamist that the matter would be litigated in court and did not provide a detailed response. The decision concerns Almonte’s habeas petition and does not itself impose criminal liability on any agent.
Brown granted Almonte’s petition and declared his arrest and detention illegal. He ordered federal lawyers to report within 21 days on steps ICE will take to ensure lawful enforcement, improve training and address false testimony and falsified records.
The court left consequences on the table. Brown said an inadequate response could lead to sanctions, referrals to other authorities or contempt proceedings.
The ruling exposes more than a mistaken identification. It describes a system in which officers detained two people without lawful grounds, injured a citizen, generated paperwork after the arrest and presented a courtroom narrative that the judge found contradicted by records, video and the agents’ own testimony.
Accountability now depends on what happens next. ICE must tell the court how it will change training and procedure. The Justice Department must decide whether the judge’s findings warrant referrals or discipline. And the public needs to know whether the officers remain in field operations while those questions are unresolved.
Sources
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York: Almonte v. Genalo Memorandum and Order
Gothamist: ICE Mistakenly Arrested Two Men in the Bronx, Then Mounted Cover-Up, U.S. Judge Rules
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