After marching to Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s office for a scheduled meeting, protestors were met with resistance.

Jacinta Gonzalez pleads with an officer, “He agreed to meet with the entire group, exactly the entire congress has to come in, that’s the agreement he made with us.”

Protestors demanded Sheriff Gusman release 22-year-old Antonio Ocampo.

Saket Soni with New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice says, “Mr. Antonio Ocampo has been in illegal custody in Sheriff Gusman’s jail for close to 100 days.”

Ocampo plead guilty to two counts of simple battery in August. At that time a judge ordered his release, giving Ocampo credit for the time he had already served.

The sheriff’s office tells ABC26 they were holding Ocampo on a pending attempted 1st degree murder charge, but the DA’s office says that “charge was refused” back in April.

The sheriff’s office also blamed an ICE hold, but Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers say they were never notified about Ocampo until Friday, November 12th, the same day Ocampo filed a lawsuit against Sheriff Gusman.

Saket says, “If Ocampo hadn’t gotten himself a lawyer, and filed writ of habeas corpus from inside OPP, his illegal detention would have been indefinite.”

Protesters fear others like Ocampo, who don’t have any money and don’t speak English, will just get lost in the system and end up spending their entire life, unlawfully in jail.

“Sheriff Gusman admitted that Orleans Parish Prison doesn’t work for people like Mr. Ocampo,” says Saket.

Ocampo says he’s happy to be out of jail, and plans to visit his brother and speak to his family for the first time since February.

Now Ocampo is a free man, but are there still problems lurking within the system?