A former U.S. Border Patrol agent who allegedly flashed his genitals while in uniform to internet personalities filming him and is accused of showing a migrant aid worker photos of his genitals pleaded not guilty Thursday in San Diego Superior Court to six counts of on-duty sexual misconduct.
Juan Angel Prishker, who has resigned from Border Patrol, was charged with felony counts of sexual battery by restraint and false imprisonment and four misdemeanor counts of distributing obscene matter.
The charges stem from three incidents that occurred between December 2022 and January of this year. One of the incidents involved a migrant aid volunteer who alleges that Prishker, 45, showed her photos of his genitals while she was asking him to request urgent medical help for a migrant family near Boulevard. Another of the incidents involved Prishker allegedly showing photos of his genitals and flashing his genitals to several internet personalities while they filmed a YouTube video about the border and migration near Jacumba Hot Springs.
Details about the third incident are unclear, but prosecutors allege Prishker unlawfully touched an “intimate part” of a woman while he was restraining her.
Defense attorney Kerry Armstrong told the Union-Tribune he had not yet seen the evidence in the case but said he hoped his client would receive a fair prosecution.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol’s parent agency, is also investigating Prishker.
“CBP does not tolerate misconduct within its ranks,” a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. “When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations. This is regardless of whether the alleged misconduct occurs on or off duty.”
Karen Parker, the migrant aid volunteer who alleges Prishker showed her photos of his genitals, also filed a civil lawsuit against Prishker and the U.S. government on Thursday in U.S. District Court. The suit alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and false imprisonment.
“I stand here today deeply affected by the actions of an officer who, while sworn to protect, used his authority to violate and degrade me,” Parker said in a written statement she provided the Union-Tribune after attending Prishker’s arraignment. “In that moment, I felt stripped of my dignity, my safety, and my trust in those meant to uphold the law. This wasn’t just an abuse against me — it was an abuse of the very badge that represents our security. I urge the court to hold him accountable, not only for the pain he caused me but for the betrayal of public trust his actions represent.”
Deputy District Attorney Vincent Chen said Prishker’s actions came under scrutiny earlier this year after a video of the agent was published on YouTube. “When we went and really dug into the YouTube incident, that’s when the other incidents came to light,” Chen said after the arraignment.
Prishker is accused of felony sexual battery by restraint for an incident on Dec. 29, 2022, according to the criminal complaint. Chen declined to give details about that incident but said it occurred while Prishker was on duty.
Prishker is also accused of felony false imprisonment by violence, menace, fraud or deceit and one misdemeanor count of sending or distributing obscene matter for the incident involving Parker on Dec. 26, 2023.
A retired social worker with first aid training, Parker began volunteering in May 2023 at the open-air detention centers along the Mexico border in East County where Border Patrol agents have held asylum seekers while they wait to be processed. In Parker’s lawsuit and in a complaint she filed with CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, she recounted how she was looking for a Border Patrol agent to report that a migrant family was in need of medical help at a camp near Boulevard when she happened upon Prishker sitting in his agency vehicle near the border fence.
“Prishker forcibly showed Ms. Parker sexually explicit images of his penis,” her lawsuit alleges. “Ms. Parker was alone and in the dark, with no other law enforcement personnel in sight. Ms. Parker wanted to leave, but Defendant Prishker repeatedly blocked Ms. Parker’s attempts to distance herself from the armed agent.”
Parker wrote in her complaint to CBP that in the weeks that followed, she avoided volunteering at migrant camps during times she believed Prishker would be on duty. She wrote that she reported the incident to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office in January around the time she learned from other volunteer aid workers that Prishker was continuing to work at the camps.
“At that point, I was very concerned because I knew he was picking up and transporting unaccompanied minors and women,” Parker wrote in her complaint.
Parker also wrote in the complaint that Prishker was the uniformed agent whose face was blurred out in the YouTube video. The video has since been removed from YouTube but remains available in an online archive.
Prosecutors also allege that it was Prishker seen in the footage. The criminal complaint charges him with three misdemeanor counts of sending or distributing obscene matter in connection with the video.
In the archived version of the video, a uniformed agent appeared to joke and converse with the internet personalities, including two men, a woman and a camera operator. The agent told the woman she was “unusually hot” and asked what she does for work. She informed him that she is a porn actress.
A short time later in the video, the agent showed the woman something on his phone. She told the camera operator and her companions that the agent just showed her photos of his genitals.
After the film crew joked about what the agent had just done, the discussion turned back to the agent and the size of his genitals. According to the video, he then showed the three members of the group two photos of his genitals and kissed the porn actress at the urging of the main internet personality hosting the video.
According to the camera crew, the agent also flashed his genitals to them.
Prishker is originally from Texas and a former college football player for the University of Oklahoma Sooners, according to a 2010 Union-Tribune story documenting a charity boxing event he participated in. According to that story, he joined the Border Patrol around 2005 or 2006.
