A defense attorney reportedly filed court documents reading “HELP!!!!” after the attorney’s client remained jailed for a week despite prosecutors declining to seek her detention.
Kristal Rios Esquivel spat on a police sergeant and made “physical contact” with an officer’s leg during an Aug. 20 arrest at the National Zoo, according to a legal complaint. Officers arrested her after she allegedly attempted to enter a restricted staff entrance at a birdhouse.
Federal authorities failed to bring Rios Esquivel to court until Aug. 25, three days after she should have been brought before a federal magistrate judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui wrote in a court order Tuesday
“At the August 25 hearing, the government did not seek detention of Ms. Rios Esquivel,” the judge added. “Instead, it asked for her release on minimal conditions of supervision.”
The judge added in a footnote: “It is baffling why Rios Esquivel was then detained in the first place.”
Amid Trump clampdown in Wash, D.C., a woman spent 6 days in jail awaiting her release for allegedly spitting on a National Zoo police sergeant.
Even though the feds did NOT seek to have her held in pretrial detention
Her defense lawyer filed a motion reading “HELP!!!”
(MORE) pic.twitter.com/dMbwMMoHWk
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) August 27, 2025
A defense attorney filed a motion for release on Rios Esquivel’s behalf Tuesday, citing apparent confusion over a warrant, according to court documents obtained by CBS News. Officials claimed that there was an outstanding warrant for the defendant’s arrest but pretrial services said the warrant had already been executed.
The U.S. Marshals appeared unable to clear up the confusion for the attorney, according to the documents. The lawyer concluded the submission with the word “HELP!!!!”
Faruqui noted that the lawyer alleged that their client was being illegally held. “The Department of Corrections informed defense counsel that it could not comply with this court’s release order because there was a “hit” on Ms. Esquivel-Rios in the warrant system. However, that warrant was the very warrant for which she appeared on August 25 before the undersigned. The warrant for which the government did not seek her detention and for which the undersigned ordered her release,” the magistrate wrote. (RELATED: Police Launch Frantic Search For Texas Man ‘Mistakenly’ Released From Jail)
A Justice Department prosecutor stepped in to remove the incorrect database entry that was keeping her behind bars, sources told CBS News. Faruqui called the incident “false imprisonment” and noted similar incidents occurred earlier this year, according to his order.
“[T]he greater question of why it takes moving heaven and earth to ensure a person who is ordered to be released is actually released—in a timely manner—remains unanswered,” the magistrate added.
The D.C. Department of Corrections and U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, according to CBS News.