ESPAÑOL

Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, an 18-year-old Indigenous-Maya Mam teen from Guatemala, whose primary language is Mam, is being held without bond in St. John’s County for a crime he DID NOT commit. Virgilio was a victim of police brutality and violation of his 4th amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure on May 19th, 2023 for standing outside the motel he was residing in while on a call with his dad. Sergeant Kunovich said he "looked suspicious" and began yelling at Virgilio. Virgilio expressed he didn't speak English on more than one occasion and that he was residing at that motel. This interaction led to an 8 minute struggle where Virgilio was physically abused and tased multiple times by multiple officers although he made it clear to the officers involved that he did not understand English, and despite Virgilio being 5-foot-4 and weighing 115 pounds. 

Sergeant Kunovich suffered a heart attack minutes after the struggle and died at the hospital. Medical examiners ruled that Sergeant Kunovich died of natural causes. Despite this ruling, The St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office and the Office of the State Attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit of Florida have charged Virgilio with aggravated manslaughter of a police officer and are attempting to put Virgilio away for life for alleged crimes he did not commit. Sergeant Kunovich died from a heart attack as a result of an incident he himself started unnecessarily and unconstitutionally that was not caused by Virgilio, but by a pre-existing condition. Virgilio has been held since May 2023 without bond, completely isolated due to his primary language being Mam, for a crime he did not commit.

After Kunovich's death, the elected sheriff of St. John County, Robert Hardwick, blatantly lied to the public on live TV by announcing during a press conference surrounded by other elected officials that Virgilio Aguilar was stopped because he was trespassing and that he had a pulled a knife on Sergeant Kunovich, which was the reason they declared Sergeant Kunovich and the other officers began to apprehend and use force to arrest Virgilio. Bodycam videos released after this press conference reveal that there was never a knife pulled on Sergeant Kunovich at all and there was no mention of a trespass in the videos or police reports, thereby undermining the credibility of the office Sheriff Hardwick leads and perpetuating the mistrust of people towards elected officials. Before Sergeant Michael Kunovich stopped Virgilio, there was no possible crime. 

Virgilio Aguilar Mendez is an Indigenous Maya Mam teen, and we stress that indigenous migrants are disproportionately affected by racism, discrimination, anti-indigeneity, being mislabeled as Latino and Indigenous language barriers. We are demanding the immediate release of Virgilio Aguilar Mendez from custody and for the charges to be dropped immediately as his constitutional and civil rights were violated by the St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office. These rights protect all people within this country, regardless of immigration status. If Virgilio is convicted and sentenced to prison for this incident it will create an extremely dangerous precedent in this country; because if a police officer dies from a heart attack during a police-citizen encounter, anyone in this country can be charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for that officer’s death. This precedent would run contrary to the fundamental tenants of freedom and Liberty, which are scared in our country. It is not a crime to stand outside your place of residence at any given time. We are demanding that Governor Ron DeSantis and 7th circuit state attorney, RJ Larizza get involved in the dismissal of this case immediately as Virgilio's right are being violated and neglected by the St. John's County Sheriff's Office. Virgilio has been sitting in jail for 7 months and will be kept there for an indefinite period unless they release him.