Court Tosses Immigrant's Conviction Over Agents' Secret Facebook Group

Kim Hutchison, attorney for Jaime Tovar-Duran, was featured by The New York Times in an article titled "Court Tosses Immigrant's Conviction Over Agents' Secret Facebook Group," published on September 15, 2026.

Hutchison represented Tovar-Duran in his appeal of a 2020 conviction for improper entry into the United States. After a district court initially upheld the conviction, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed course this week, ruling that prosecutors violated their due process obligation to disclose evidence, specifically that two of the three Border Patrol agents who testified against Tovar-Duran had been members of a private Facebook group, "I'm 10-15," known for racist and offensive posts about immigrants.

The Ninth Circuit remanded the case to the lower court to determine whether the undisclosed group membership would have affected the verdict. Reacting to the reversal, Hutchison said the ruling underscored the importance of due process, noting that her client, now in Mexico, may face difficulty appearing for further proceedings. On the government's failure to disclose the agents' affiliation, Hutchison said prosecutors "tried to use these shortcuts like not offering full discovery."

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