Biography
Brian Cortez Lightfoot Jr. was one of the eleven defendants in the San Diego County District Attorney's prosecution of anti-fascist counter-protesters who attended the January 9, 2021 "Patriot March" pro-Trump rally on the Pacific Beach boardwalk. He was sentenced on June 28, 2024 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein to two years in state prison (the longest sentence in the case), to be served in county jail.
On January 9, 2021 — three days after the Capitol riot in Washington, D.C. — pro-Trump organizers held a rally they called the "Patriot March" along the boardwalk in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego, California. A group of anti-fascist counter-protesters appeared and confrontations broke out, including the use of pepper spray, the throwing of objects, and several physical assaults. The San Diego County District Attorney brought conspiracy-to-riot and related charges against eleven counter-protesters under what would become, when sentenced in 2024, the first major state-level "antifa" conspiracy prosecution in the United States. Nine of the eleven pleaded guilty; two were convicted at jury trial in May 2024. On June 28, 2024, San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel B. Goldstein sentenced the eight named defendants to terms ranging from 180 days in county jail to two years of state prison.
His determinate two-year term, imposed June 28, 2024, fully expired no later than June 28, 2026 — the date entered here as the latest possible release; with California conduct credits his actual release was likely around mid-2025, but the exact date is undocumented.
