Laredo citizen journalist 'Lagordiloca' arrested for asking police questions
Independent Laredo, Texas journalist Priscilla Villarreal was arrested in 2017 under an obscure Texas 'misuse of official information' statute for asking a police officer to confirm the names of a suicide victim and a Border Patrol agent killed in a crash. The Fifth Circuit en banc denied her First Amendment claim in 2024.
Priscilla Villarreal, known online as 'Lagordiloca,' runs a popular Facebook page reporting on crime and policing in Laredo, Texas. In 2017 Laredo police arrested her under Tex. Penal Code § 39.06(c), a rarely used 'misuse of official information' statute, for publishing the names of a suicide victim and a U.S. Border Patrol agent killed in a car crash — information confirmed by a police officer. A state judge dismissed the charges as unconstitutionally vague. Villarreal sued, and after years of litigation the Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled 9-7 in January 2024 that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity (Villarreal v. City of Laredo, 94 F.4th 374). The case drew amicus support from a broad coalition of press-freedom groups and was cited in the Supreme Court's 2024 certiorari denial.