An undocumented immigrant who lives in South Los Angeles pleaded not guilty on Friday, Sept. 5, to federal charges alleging she invented a story that she was kidnapped at gunpoint by masked immigration officers or bounty hunters and held hostage in a warehouse.

Yuriana Julia Pelaez Calderon, 41, is charged with conspiracy and making false statements to federal officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Her trial is set for Oct. 21.

An attorney representing Calderon’s family held a press conference on June 30 to announce the woman had been kidnapped five days earlier at a Jack in the Box parking lot in downtown Los Angeles and brought to San Ysidro, where she was presented to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement staffer and handed voluntary self-deportation paperwork.

The

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