When Genevieve Vega, an El Monte resident and activist, posted a question on social media to former councilwoman Maria Morales about the use of a million-dollar donation to the El Monte Promise Foundation, which she herself directs, she didn't imagine that this concern would leave her silent and with health problems for months.

The year last week, after posting on her social media a video she retrieved from Morales' public Facebook account, in which Vega raised the question about the $10 million grant intended for the foundation, the activist received a restraining order and a formal cease and desist notice from the authorities, requested by the former councilwoman. “They sent me a summons, but I didn't pay much attention to it,” Vega explains. It wasn't until the police arrived at my house and informed me that there was a court order related to my Instagram account that I really started to worry.” A video recorded by the activist herself and sent to La Opinion shows the moment the El Monte police arrive at her house and explain the reason for their presence. “At the beginning of the month, we received a report from Maria Morales where she mentioned an Instagram account called 'Killjoy' from which she was possibly being harassed…,” the officer stated “I reviewed most of the account's content, and I must tell you that the majority of the posted content is not criminal.” You have the right to freedom of expression.”

At that moment, the authorities themselves were agreeing with him, that public officials or people in power cannot silence dissenting voices simply because they are inconvenient; however, what also surprised him was when the officers, at that moment, informed him of an open court case against him regarding a video.

It was the video that Morales had publicly shared about his son's high school graduation, at which time his own father announced that he would be attending USC.

Vega said that he downloaded the video and used it, not to incite hatred toward Morales's son, but to find out the whereabouts of the money given to the organization she runs,and to ensure it wasn't used to pay for her son's education.

The video that prompted Morales to take legal action against Vega was immediately removed from social media.

Vega believes the authorities invaded her privacy by investigating her Instagram account, as she has not received any court order regarding her social media posts.

“I understand she [Maria Morales] is a mother and was probably trying to protect her son, but I don't feel I posed a threat that would justify her singing me. I simply asked, 'Where is the money? Show us what it was used for and where it went.' And I was silenced and punished for months for asking that. I never harmed her or her son.”

Vega says the whole situation has been very stressful and has affected her mental health, as she has never had any legal issues before. The first arrest warrant against her was issued after she failed to appear at her initial court hearing due to medical issues. “I felt like they were trying to silence me because when I showed up to one of the public council meetings, a police officer approached me and told me that since I hadn't shown up for my first court date, I had to sign a citation, and when I refused, they threatened to arrest me,” Vega explained. “When I finally appeared in court a second time, another police officer approached me and told me I had a restraining order against me, which was devastating because I don't know her personally [Maria Morales] nor had I ever been close to her enough for her to lift a restraining order.” Since July 2025, Vega has been fighting the legal case in El Monte Superior Court, and it wasn't until late January of this year that Judge Angel Navarro dismissed the lawsuit. And although she is relieved not to have to continue fighting legally, she says the experience affected her and her family. According to Vega, her mother and a friend were summoned in the case. A decision that, in her opinion, put her mother and those around her at risk. Vega maintains that she did nothing wrong, that she was only exercising her freedom of expression, and that the retaliation was unjustified. "It was a stressful back-and-forth with the case; right now I feel relieved that the case was dismissed, but it caused me emotional distress the whole time," Vega explained. “Because of this, I had to go back to therapy and take medication because it was affecting my mental health, but overall, I feel like it's a victory for me because I wasn't doing anything wrong.” Cosme Jimenez, A resident of El Monte for about six decades and intimately familiar with the inner workings of city politics, said he wasn't surprised by Morales's attitude. Jimenez explained that he himself has been attacked by Morales,who asked him not to criticize her during council meetings (2021) and then tried to limit his freedom of expression by sending him text messages criticizing him for not speaking "proper" English and for his low intellectual level, after Jimenez, an immigrant from Sonora, criticized her at a council meeting in February 2022, when Morales was still a council member. In the text message, published in Political Life, Morales also makes it clear that she will offer Jimenez "her valuable time" and pay for his lunch again. He tells her that he would like to hear a more intellectual conversation from Jimenez, blesses him, and hopes that God will help him express himself more professionally and coherently. Jimenez adds that he has always been respectful to Morales, but in most cases he has not agreed with the former councilwoman's political positions, and assures that he always speaks the truth. For Jimenez, the level of intimidation used with Vega is part of the control that a group in the city has maintained for years. They did it before with former mayor Andre Quintero, and now they're doing it with Morales.

No response

According to the website of the El Monte Promise Foundation, created in 2012 and currently headed by Morales, the California Community Foundation established the El Monte Community Building Initiative in 2007, with a commitment to invest $10 million over ten years to improve the lives of the city's low-income residents in the areas of education, health, housing, and community resources, etc.

For several days, La Opinion tried to contact the foundation to obtain more details about the use of the funds, but at the time of publication, no response had been received. The same thing happened with former councilwoman Morales, who was sent emails requesting her comment on the aspects in which her name is mentioned in the article, but she also did not respond to our interview request.

This article was written thanks to the collaboration of Latino Media Collaborative.