(File Photo of a Gavel)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) Acting United States Attorney Troy Revetti announced today that a citizen of Guatemala illegally residing in the United States pleaded guilty to
a charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal law enforcement officer and was sentenced to time served on his conviction. Thirty-three-year-old Juan Jose Antuche-Garcia was sentenced yesterday. According to information presented to the Court, Antuche-Garcia, a native and citizen of Guatemala, illegally entered the United States on September 3rd, 2023. An immigration judge ordered Antuche-Garcia to be removed from the United States after he got released on bond by immigration authorities but failed to appear before the immigration court in May of 2024 as directed. Antuche-Garcia was found by immigration authorities on Friday in the area of Robinson Township, Pennsylvania after officers of federal law enforcement tried to pull over a vehicle in which a passenger was the defendant. A traffic stop was initiated by federal law enforcement officers by activating both the sirens and emergency lighting on five vehicles that were not marked. The driver of that vehicle that these officers were trying to pull over rammed his vehicle into one of the vehicles of one of the federal enforcement officers instead of coming to a complete stop, which pinned a leg of an officer between the door frame and the door of his own vehicle. The rear seat passenger and the driver of the vehicle that was pulled over escaped apprehension. Antuche-Garcia was the front passenger of the vehicle and he also tried to escape by forcefully and repeatedly opening his door into the door of the vehicle behind which the leg of one of the officers was pinned, which caused that officer to get injured additionally. According to Revetti, Antuche-Garcia has been in custody since his arrest and will remain in custody pending his removal from the United States.