All charges were dropped.
Pastor Arturo Fernandez, a street preacher in California, had charges dropped against him after a religious freedom law firm intervened, claiming that law enforcement violated his First Amendment rights. Fernandez had been arrested in June while preaching outside the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California. The San Bernardino County District Attorney dismissed the charges following a statement from Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which argued that Fernandez was peacefully exercising his rights to free speech and religious expression.
The incident began when Fernandez stood on a public sidewalk outside the arena, about 20 feet from concert-goers, separated by railings. Security guards approached him, claiming he was on private property, but Fernandez insisted he was on public land and suggested they call the police for confirmation. When the police arrived, they informed him that the arena was privately owned and that the company had the right to exclude people from the property, including Fernandez. The officer warned him that he would be arrested for trespassing if he did not leave.
Fernandez maintained that he had a right to preach on public property and argued that the City of Ontario owned the land, with exclusion rights only applying inside the arena. Despite his arguments, the officer insisted that the rights extended to the surrounding areas and told Fernandez he would be arrested if he did not comply. Fernandez was arrested, charged with trespassing, and later released. He was instructed to appear in court in October.
Advocates for Faith & Freedom sent demand letters to the police department and the district attorney’s office, asserting that Fernandez’s First Amendment rights had been infringed upon. They argued that there was no legitimate public safety or traffic flow concern that justified his arrest and that Fernandez was standing at a respectful distance from event attendees. The firm contended that the police had no authority to stop Fernandez’s public preaching.
As a result of the law firm’s efforts, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office decided to drop the charges. This case was not Fernandez’s first brush with the law over street preaching, as he was arrested but not charged in a similar incident in San Bernardino in 2021.