Reports: Bounty Hunters Who Spurred Quince Orchard Lockdown Found Guilty of Assault

The two bounty hunters who prompted the lockdown of Quince Orchard High School in March pleaded guilty to bringing to assault and bringing a weapon onto school property, several news outlets have reported. 

Johnathan Vargas-Fuentes, 28, of Hyattsville, and Clemente Balsera, 29, of Gaithersburg, received 3-year suspended sentences with 18 months of supervised probation, according to several published reports.

A spokesman with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office did not return Patch’s inquiry at the time this story was published.

Authorities claim the men were posing as federal agents and weren’t licensed to be bounty hunters, WJLA reports.

Photos of the fake credentials were posted at MyFoxDC.cocm. 

The State’s Attorney’s Office told The Gazette that the men were hired as bounty hunters by a Upper Marlboro bail bondsman and on March 15 were chasing a man who failed to appear in court for a marijuana charge. 

The chase led to the parking lot of Quince Orchard High School, spurring the lockdown. 

That’s when police found the fake credentials, a pellet gun and a black Taser gun, according to published reports. 

John Pikulkski, the defense attorney for Vargas-Fuentes and Balsera, told WJLA said that if his clients could go back in time, they wouldn’t have followed the person to the school.