The Prosecutor’s Office and the Municipal Police of San Juan will present charges on Thursday afternoon against a man arrested for offering false information to an agent using a video made with artificial intelligence.
The Department of Justice reported that the prosecutor Christian Castro is in charge of the case.
For his part, the commissioner of the San Juan Municipal Police, John Jacksonindicated that his agents were completing the process of seeking additional evidence requested by the prosecutor.
“We are requesting a search warrant for some cameras that were in the place, and another search warrant for the individual’s cell phone,” the officer explained. “Once we have all the evidence, it will be filed. We understand that it will be today afternoon.”
The authorities identified the subject as Alexis J. Martínez Arizala, 22, against whom there is an arrest warrant in the state of Florida for a similar case.
“He dedicates himself to this and creates content about it. In Florida he has other charges filed for a prank on a police officer similar to the one he did here,” he added.
Jackson explained that, once he is processed in Puerto Rico, federal marshals will take him to Florida to process the pending arrest warrant.
In the case of San Juan, Jackson said that he would face three years in prison for one of the charges he will face, alleging violation of article 268 of the Penal Code of Puerto Rico.
The measure indicates: “Any person who, through a complaint, request, information, confidence, regardless of whether it is anonymous or under a false name, directed to persons or officials with authority under the law to carry out investigations of a criminal nature, declares or falsely alleges, having knowledge of its falsehood, that a crime has been committed, thus causing the initiation of an investigation aimed at clarifying it, will incur a less serious crime.”
“If the falsely alleged fact is one that constitutes a serious crime, the person will incur a serious crime and will be punished with imprisonment for a fixed term of three (3) years”, adds the provision.
Meanwhile, Jackson said they are still investigating to find out if they will eventually file additional charges for other alleged pranks with similar false information that he offered to other municipal agents, as seen in videos published on one of Martínez Arizala’s social media accounts.
It is also possible that charges may be filed against a second person who allegedly cooperated with Martínez Arizala.
The facts
According to preliminary information, on April 6, Martínez Arizala allegedly approached an agent of the San Juan Municipal Police who was in a fast food restaurant in Santurce and showed him a video altered by artificial intelligence, in which it appeared that another person had stolen his patrol car.
According to a statement from the Municipality of San Juan, the police officer reacted immediately to what he understood to be a real situation.
Later, Martínez Arizala would have told him that it was a joke, while he recorded the entire situation in a video that he later published on social networks.
Martínez Arizala and the other subject allegedly dedicate themselves to publishing, on social networks, confrontations that they provoke with police and civilians around the United States.
Some of the incidents, presented as pranks, consist of showing videos produced using artificial intelligence making it appear that someone is driving or manipulating vehicles without authorization. In this way, they seek to provoke reactions among agents or citizens.
In other publications – also on social networks – they have captured and manipulated, with artificial intelligence tools and without authorization, images of citizens. In them, they show people carrying out actions that are not real, causing violent reactions that they also publish on social networks.