The parents of deceased Border Patrol Agent Isaiah Hodgson said on Monday that they believe public backlash drove their son to a dark place that resulted in him fatally overdosing earlier this year.
Hodgson became a lightning rod of controversy this summer when he was filmed participating in the rough arrest of a U.S. citizen who authorities allege interfered with a roving group of Border Patrol agents.
Weeks later, that controversy intensified when Hodgson was accused of drunkenly pulling his gun out at a Long Beach restaurant and brawling with the local police who showed up to arrest him.
The next month, while waiting to face charges, Hodgson died of an overdose at his parents’ Riverside County home. The Riverside County Coroner’s Office ruled his death was accidental and caused by “cocaine toxicity,” the L.A. Times reported.
In light of his death, a Long Beach Superior Court judge dismissed the charges against Hodgson at a hearing Monday.
Hodgson’s parents were in attendance, hoping to publicly address what they saw as unfair media narratives about their son reported in the Long Beach Post, other LA area publications and even international media. Judge Judith Meyer, however, denied their request to speak, saying there was no judicial action she could take in response to their testimony.
In lieu of addressing the court, Hodgson’s parents gave a brief statement to the Long Beach Post and answered a few questions.
They said Hodgson grew up in Hemet and had spent seven years as a firefighter in the U.S. Forest Service before joining the Border Patrol in 2024.
When he joined, “there was no raids, no controversy,” his mother, Rosa Hodgson, said. Isaiah Hodgson worked in the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector east of San Diego before volunteering to come to Los Angeles, said his father, Marvin Hodgson.
The backlash against Isaiah Hodgson began in June when he was among a group of agents in Pico Rivera who arrested Adrian Martinez. The 20-year-old U.S. citizen had confronted agents as they chased a janitor who’d spotted them and tried to run away. In media interviews, Martinez said agents left him seriously bruised and improperly detained him for three days. Federal prosecutors have charged Martinez with conspiring to interfere with the agents, in part, by blocking them with his car.
Isaiah Hodgson’s face was shown in a viral video of the arrest, and soon after, according to his parents, he started being harassed.
He received “over 100 phone calls” with people threatening to kill him, according to his father. And “internet warriors” began driving by the family home in Hemet to yell in protest, Marvin Hodgson added.
They said Isaiah Hodgson was stationed in Long Beach at the time and would stay at various hotels in the area, but Border Patrol agents had to regularly change lodgings because protesters would be “yelling at night” outside.
In July, Isaiah Hodgson was drinking with a group at the Yardhouse restaurant on the Long Beach shoreline. He was told to leave after reportedly going into a women’s restroom and placing his gun and an ammunition clip on the sink, according to body-camera footage first obtained by the Long Beach Post.
When Isaiah Hodgson remained in the parking lot, a security guard called the police to report that he had a gun. Officers swiftly arrived and wrestled Isaiah Hodgson to the ground, repeatedly Tasering him, according to body-camera footage obtained last month by the Long Beach Post.
“Stop fighting us,” one yells, as Isaiah Hodgson refuses to go down and appears to elbow an officer in the head.
His parents were critical of the aggressive nature of the arrest. They pointed out that Hodgson had ditched his gun behind a palm tree outside the restaurant, something they said was intended to protect himself and the officers he knew were nearby. Officers, apparently unaware of this while they tackled Isaiah Hodgson, later found the still-loaded gun.
“That was close,” one officer said after ejecting a round from the chamber.
While being booked into jail, Isaiah Hodgson told a sergeant he’d been under immense stress from being “doxed” — having personal information posted on the internet.
“He has never been hated in his life until he came here,” said Marvin Hodgson. “And I think that’s one of the things that broke him was being hated by so many people.”
Rosa Hodgson said that in the days before his death, her son was ready to defend his actions — and planned to do so in court.
Instead, she alleged, “He was silenced by politics, by publicity, by people who were more interested in headlines than humanity.”