Court Solidarity: Tuesday, June 14, 2005
at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-47, Central Justice
Center, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana,
California
Read below for details:
On Friday, October 22, 2004, four persons were
arrested by Santa Ana Police at an anti-police
brutality march held in conjunction with the National
Day of Protest against Police Brutality. Two persons
were taken into custody for allegedly obstructing a
police officer in the performance of his duties;
another two were arrested because they were carrying
bullhorns.
Since that time, three of these cases have been
settled in Orange County Superior Court. Two protestors plead guilty to a misdemeanor and were given a year of informal probation, required to pay a small state restitution fund fee, and perform several hours of community service; another person agreed to pay $350 as part of a "civil compromise" in return for the criminal charge against them being dropped.
Naui Huitzilopochtli, one of the protestors arrested
by Santa Ana Police on the night of October 22nd for
carrying a bullhorn, has decided to fight the
criminal charge pending against him. He has retained
the services of both Victor Cueto, Esq. and
Ronald Talmo, Esq. -- the latter being a prominent
Orange County Civil Rights Attorney -- to defend
him in court.
The Santa Ana City Attorney's office is prosecuting
Huitzilopochtli for allegedly violating Section 10-153
of their Municipal Code which states in part that
"[i]t is unlawful for any person to cause, allow, or
permit the emission or transmission of any loud or
raucous noise from any sound-making or
sound-amplifying device in his possession or his
control".
In the trial brief that Naui's attorneys filed on his
behalf at his last court appearance, they argued that
the the Santa Ana City Ordinance regulating the use of
a "sound-amplifying device" violates the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because certain
provisions within it give the police too much power
and discretion to decide how it should be enforced.
Although the Santa Ana City Attorney's office asked
for yet another extension at his last court
appearance, we expect the case, "People of California v. Naui Huitzilopochtli" (Case No. A61170), to finally go
to trial on the morning of Tuesday, June 14, 2005
at 8:30 a.m. in Department C-47, Central Justice
Center, 700 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana,
California. We ask that those persons who attended
the last court appearance come to this one -- and
bring a couple of friends! Bring as many people
as possible!
Show your solidarity with Naui, who, like three
other protestors on the night of October 22nd, was
arrested in a capricious and arbitrary manner by
Santa Ana Police merely for exercising his First
Amendment right to free speech and __expression
during a non-violent demonstration!
REMEMBER: AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
By showing up to this trial, we'll be sending a strong
message to Santa Ana Police that we will no longer
tolerate them trampling all over our constitutional
rights!
TAKE A STAND TO DEFEND CIVIL LIBERTIES!
For more information, please e-mail
atlachinolli_front@yahoo.com =============================
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ONLINE
=============================
Article posted online at
http://www.ocorganizer.com offering a brief summary about what transpired at the
Friday, October 22, 2004 anti-police brutality march
in Santa Ana, California and some actions that occured
in response::
http://www.ocorganizer.com/html/reports_from_the_hood.html "Defendant's Trial Brief" that was filed by Civil
Rights Attorney Ronald Talmo in "People of California
v. Naui Huitzilopochtli", Orange County Superior
Court,
Case No. A61170:
http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/trialbrief.pdf Excessive force complaint filed by the author of this
message with SAPD Internal Affairs Unit on 11/19/04
re: arrest of protestor at O22 march; and SAPD's
letter of 2/15/04 re: results of their "investigation"
of the complaint:
http://la.indymedia.org/uploads/sapdcomplaint_response.pdf Two articles posted online at la.indymedia.org
regarding a well-documented 2003 incident at a City
Council meeting showing that Santa Ana Police contempt
for civil liberties is not a relatively new phenomena:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/31849.php http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/36505.php