Journalist Vows to Appeal Wrongful Arrest Suit to Supreme Court

A Texas citizen journalist who said she was wrongfully arrested for gaining nonpublic information from police had her lawsuit rejected by an appeals court Tuesday, prompting vows by her attorneys to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, was previously let off the hook after a state judge dismissed a criminal case against her in 2018, finding that the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to sue officials for damages.

Priscilla Villarreal, a citizen journalist from Laredo, Texas, who claims she was improperly arrested stands outside the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building in New Orleans, Jan. 25, 2023, with her attorney, J.T. Morris, after the court heard arguments in Villarreal's lawsuit against Laredo and Webb County, Texas, authorities. — Priscilla Villarreal, a citizen journalist from Laredo, Texas, stands outside the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building in New Orleans, on Jan. 25, 2023, with her attorney, J.T. Morris, after the court heard arguments in her lawsuit against Laredo and Webb County, Texas, authorities. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill, File)

Police arrested and charged her in 2017 with two felony counts of misuse of information related to her publishing the identities of suicide and car crash victims on Facebook, information that she gathered through communications with a Laredo police officer.

In a 9-7 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the majority held on Tuesday that the police officers and other officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.