A Modesto activist and local lawyers are questioning police actions and claiming overreach in the department’s pursuit of a misdemeanor case of $240 worth of vandalism to campaign signs.
In August, Modesto progressive activist Learkana Chong was arrested and charged with allegedly defacing two campaign signs for incumbent Modesto City Councilman Eric Alvarez.
Her attorney said the investigation into the misdemeanor case, including a search warrant for her phone, reached beyond the alleged crime and threatens the privacy of those she organizes with politically.
She will return to court Monday, Nov. 16, on the criminal charges.
In early September, a judge froze a Modesto Police Department forensic search of Chong’s cellphone.
Chong, a member of the Central Valley Black Indigenous People of Color Coalition (CVBIPOCC), is a prominent critic of Modesto’s now defunct ban on masks at protests. Alvarez, who is poised for reelection as councilman for District 2, has strongly supported the ban.
According to an arrest affidavit, city cameras recorded a woman crossing out Alvarez’s name on two signs at Sutter Avenue and Tuolumne Boulevard and writing “Vote for Juan Telles” (his District 2 opponent) on Aug. 7 and again Aug. 11. Each time the woman photographed the signs, the second time with her cellphone. Police traced the car to Chong.
Alvarez, who reported the vandalism to MPD, valued the damage at $240.
The Stanislaus District Attorney’s Office filed two misdemeanor counts on Aug. 19, and Chong was arrested the next day and booked in the Stanislaus County Jail. She posted bail and was released in the early morning Aug. 21.
A few days later on Aug. 27, Chong’s phone along with two permanent markers were seized during a traffic stop based on the contested search warrant.
Activist alleges political targeting
“I feel like they’re taking this opportunity to attempt to teach me some kind of lesson. And I really feel like this is an abuse of power, and a waste of public resources,” Chong told The Modesto Focus.
An affidavit for the search warrant was not initially made available to Chong’s legal counsel, and remains undisclosed to the public.
According to the affidavit for Chong’s arrest warrant, MPD Detective David Ramirez utilized the department’s Real Time Crime Center to track Chong’s movement since the night of the first alleged vandalism. Documents show he pinpointed her car’s stops at five separate locations across the city that same day.
Chong said the nature of her second interaction with Ramirez was unsettling.
During the traffic stop, Chong said Ramirez mentioned the recent passing of her mother, which she said was “very deeply concerning to me, the level of surveillance and the amount of resources they’re using to harass me.”
She said it felt like she was being monitored, and her social media and online activity tracked.
Her Modesto attorney Patrick Kolasinski said the department’s search of her phone is his most pressing concern.
“Right now, the priority is just to get the phone from being searched and having all of these First Amendment chilling effects coming into place, and that is the number one thing,” he said when he filed the emergency petition.
Chong’s emergency petition argued the search violates the Fourth Amendment, which requires warrants to describe with particularity what police may search. The petition also says the search posed First Amendment free speech issues because it could expose protest participants, organizers and private political discussions – including with people who criticize the police department.
The warrant initially granted MPD permission to search her phone for messages, contacts, social media, GPS and cloud storage, starting a month before the first alleged incident of vandalism.
Kolasinski questioned MPD’s intentions with the search warrant.
Judge David I. Hood, who signed the warrant, froze the search after the late August petition, and then a few days later extended the freeze indefinitely and barred police from sharing the data with any other agency, federal intelligence unit or fusion center.
Prosecutors later disclosed MPD had tried and failed to extract the phone’s data.
Harlan Diven, general counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance, offered legal assistance to Chong during her night in jail. They wrote in a text that this is not the first time MPD has arrested CVBIPOCC members during recent public demonstrations.
Modesto’s recently dropped mask ban
Police arrested five people at an ICE Out rally in June 2025. It was the first of many large gatherings in Modesto as part of a larger protest movement against the Trump administration across the country.
The ACLU of Northern California, two members of CVBIPOCC, Pacific Media Workers Guild (which covers reporters at Modesto Focus) and one other plaintiff filed a lawsuit against the city about the “needlessly vague” mask ban in March.
The city fought the lawsuit, initially approving up to $349,500 for legal fees, before ultimately announcing a settlement this week at a total legal cost of $824,613. The city has agreed to drop the mask provision, and make additional allowances for journalists covering protests.
The ban was a key local issue during the recent midterm elections. During the Oct. 1 city council candidates debate hosted by The Modesto Focus, Councilmember Alvarez said that he supports it, while his challenger, Telles, favored repeal.
As of Nov. 13, Alvarez is cruising to reelection by a comfortable margin as the vote count nears a close.
Chong, alongside the ACLU and others, argued the ban must be repealed because local police have used it to violate civil rights and disproportionately discriminate against Black and brown residents in Modesto.
“I think MPD is trying to silence me, but I will not be silenced,” Chong said. “I will continue to speak out about the mask ban and any other policies that are oppressive and inequitable and hurt our community.”
MPD calls claims ‘false,’ not supported by facts
Police spokesman Herman Sahota said the department did not target Chong for her activism. He said investigators pursue cases based on facts and evidence, not just on whether offenses are misdemeanors or felonies.
Diven and Kolasinski questioned why a misdemeanor charge, which Chong’s case falls under because the damages were less than $400, warranted an arrest and forensic search. They said these kinds of cases typically result in a fine.
MPD did not respond to inquiries about whether video surveillance and issuance of search warrants is common practice in misdemeanor cases for the department.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I don’t think that the majority of our city council would support behavior like this,” Kolasinski said. “We don’t think this is what Modesto stands for.”
The Modesto Focus submitted a public records request for audio of the calls to report the vandalism, bodycam footage of the arrest and other documentation of the arrest.
The city responded to the public records request with a note showing it had already been fulfilled by Sahota’s response.
“Criticism of MPD is not a crime…” Sahota wrote in an email statement. “Repeatedly damaging someone else’s property is.”
The city has also refuted Chong’s claims of being politically targeted.
“Ms. Chong’s allegation that she was targeted because of her activism or political views is false and is not supported by the facts of this investigation,” Sahota wrote.
Alvarez told The Modesto Focus the case was a police matter.
“My personal property was vandalized two times … and I believe police should deal with criminal matters,” he said.
Chong and CVBIPOCC are organizing a rally before her hearing Monday morning at the Stanislaus Superior Court on 11th Street.
Vivienne Aguilar is the arts/education reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at vivienne@themodestofocus.org.
Ximena Loeza is the bilingual communities reporter for The Modesto Focus, a project of the nonprofit Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. Contact her at ximena@themodestofocus.org.