Defendant in Hagerstown stalking case, with viral TikTok video, deported

A Hagerstown man charged in 2020 with stalking a city woman, which resulted in a viral TikTok video, was deported earlier this year before his local criminal case could completely be adjudicated.

Defense attorney David Harbin said he learned in April, between scheduled hearings in the matter, that his client, Angel Moises Rodriguez-Gomez, was deported and that he was in Mexico.

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A person with the immigration attorney's office for Rodriguez-Gomez's immigration case said they could not provide information about the case without the client's authorization.

Rodriguez-Gomez, then 36 and living in the 100 block of Manor Drive, was charged Nov. 24, 2020, with stalking, second-degree assault, third- and fourth-degree burglary and malicious destruction of property valued at less than $1,000, according to court records. The sole felony was third-degree burglary.

He and the victim lived in different Manor Drive apartment buildings at the time of the incident.

Hagerstown Police were dispatched to the woman's apartment around 10:24 p.m. that Nov. 22 for a reported burglary, according to charging documents.

The woman told police she had been dancing to music in her living room and recording it with her smartphone when she was startled by the door to her balcony opening, charging documents state. She reported seeing an unknown man start to enter her apartment.

Rodriguez-Gomez is seen in a viral video the victim was recording when he entered her balcony door, and news of the incident made national headlines.

The woman yelled at the man and told him to leave, according to charging documents and the video she posted of the encounter on her Facebook account. After repeatedly asking him who he is and telling him to get out, he responds, “Are you sure?” and she says “Yes.”

In the video, she grabs her phone and opens her apartment door, continuing to tell the man to “please” get out. A figure can be seen by the balcony door backing out and closing the door as she yells “Get out.”

Then the woman knocks on a neighbor’s door and takes refuge in the other apartment.

An attorney who represented the woman who recorded the video could not immediately be reached for comment this past week.

An ICE spokesperson, in December 2020, said the agency determined Rodriguez-Gomez, who is from Mexico, was in the U.S. illegally. As a result, he was picked up by ICE agents and was being held at an ICE facility.

More than once, Rodriguez-Gomez's local stalking case was delayed due to technical difficulties related to the local courthouse and ICE using different online meeting systems. Online meetings were attempted because Rodriguez-Gomez had been held in an ICE facility before his deportation.

The online docket for Rodriguez-Gomez's case still listed the case as open on Friday with a plea hearing scheduled for late April 2023 marked as canceled/vacated.

Washington County Deputy State's Attorney Sarah Mollett-Gaumer said earlier this fall that the state doesn't have the ability to demand that someone in federal custody be transported to a state court. Washington County Circuit Court is a state court.

ICE was willing to do a remote hearing, but it appears ICE deported him, Mollett-Gaumer said.

An inquiry to ICE this fall about Rodriguez-Gomez's status resulted in a general statement from an ICE spokesperson that its Enforcement and Removal Operations "conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

"EOIR is a separate entity from DHS and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal," the statement read.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Alleged stalker in viral TikTok video deported