Anti-immigration activist charged

By: Staff and wire reports -

SAN DIEGO ---- An anti-immigration activist has been charged with battery, interfering with the civil rights of two day laborers, and filing a false police report, City Attorney Michael Aguirre announced Monday.

A total of nine charges against John Matthew Monti, 36, stem from a Nov. 18 incident near Rancho Penasquitos Boulevard, at a site where day laborers gather to find jobs, Aguirre said in a written statement.

Monti, who could not immediately be reached for comment Monday, has claimed he was the one who was attacked, claims that have appeared on a number of Web sites of groups opposed to illegal immigration.

The Los Angeles-area resident is scheduled to appear in court April 13 on four counts each of battery and interference with civil rights and one count of filing a false crime report to a peace officer.

Monti has said he is a member of the anti-immigration group Save Our State; the city attorney's office said in its written statement that Monti is affiliated with the border-watch group known as the Minutemen.

According to the city attorney's office, Monti began taking photographs of the workers while calling them "Mexicano Cochinos," or dirty Mexicans.

He allegedly began punching one of the victims, Estanislao Gonzales, who tried to walk away because the defendant was sticking his camera in the man's face, according to prosecutors.

When Roberto Pena tried to help Gonzales, who is described in court papers as being disabled, he, too, was assaulted by Monti, prosecutors allege.

Immediately afterward, Monti contacted police, claiming he had been robbed and assaulted by six to eight migrant workers, Aguirre said.

In a telephone interview with the North County Times in November, Monti alleged that he was at the site to photograph day laborers being picked up for work when he was attacked from behind.

In that interview, Monti said his camera and cell phone were taken in the alleged attack, but that he recovered them.

In March, Monti filed a complaint with the San Diego County grand jury for what he described as a failure by authorities to adequately respond to an unrelated incident of prostitution and human trafficking in migrant camps near McGonigle Canyon, an area where hundreds of migrant workers were evicted last year.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Anyone know this punk, John Monti's, SOS nickname over at the SOS forum??

Hehehehe! S.ave O.ur S.hipwreck!!!!!!!!

Whatever really happened in this case, I guess SOS members just like to accumulate criminal histories. If they really would do the jobs they say are being supposedly stolen from them, wouldn't they want to be able to pass any background checks? Or maybe they just want attention and be outlaw heroes or something stupid like that. Not real smart.

Looks like the SOS website & forum are down...again!

Damn, these goofs can't even keep a low-grade website up & running correctly!! Or just maybe they're getting HACKED?!

Is John Monti the one called "Immigration Watchdog", the one with the website & the one who films all SOS events wearing a bandana on his ugly head, trying to act all professional??

Immigration watchdog is Brooke Young.

I think the scumbag's name is "joaquinsantiago"

That's definately Monti. his id is joaquinsantiago.

Have you notice SOS site keeping quite about this?

Minuteklan scumbag Ray Herrera also filed a false police report last year after a protest in Lake Forest.

Herrera claimed the "goons" hit him with their car as he stood in an intersection. The reality was he sprained his ankle stepping off the curb.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!!!!!!

Herrera is a funny one. I got video of him erratically dashing through the street when cars are going by trying to get out onto the main road. It wasn't the incident where he got hurt, but a different day.

FREE RAY - MOST !
FREE CAM PEE AN !
FREE JEFF SWILL !
FREE MINUTEMOM KKKRISTI !
FREE JIM GILCHRIST !
FREE MARVIN STEWART !
FREE BARBARA COKE !
FREE DEBRA COURTNEY... and her boyfriend... and...
and john monti ... and...
... and....

Tuesday, 13 March 2007

The San Diego media, particularly the tabloid North County Times, NBC Channel 7 News, and the Spanish media, have been spreading rumors and lies about us and our organization fed to them by a bitter ex-member and her new radical activist friends in Arizona and Texas.

As you have probably heard by now, radical activist Russ Dove and his friends have falsely accused SDMM Founder Jeff Schwilk of numerous crimes and are now suing Jeff for $700,000 in "damages". They have falsely accused us of stealing videos that were given to SDMM (we have the emails) and assaulting Christie Czajkowski when she refused to leave a party in Jeff's home on Feb. 4th in front of 6 witnesses. She had arrived uninvited, unannounced, and unwanted when she heard Jeff was having a Super Bowl gathering for Minutemen. Christie had been terminated from SDMM on Feb. 2nd for gross violations of our rules of conduct and was out for revenge. She was subsequently terminated from MCDC by Chris Simcox and Carl Braun on Feb. 14th for further violations of their SOP. She has been terminated from at least 4 Minuteman groups over the past 8 months for radical, erratic, insubordinate, and unstable behavior.

We categorically deny each and every allegation from these rogue activists who are now collecting donations from unsuspecting patriots to fund their radical activities, including the desecration of two Mexican flags in public in the past three weeks. In our opinion, this is nothing more than a scam to play on the sympathies of patriotic Americans and raise money for an unemployed single mother of two young daughters who refuses to get a job almost one year after being fired from her last job. Christie lives in a $2200 per month, 4 bedroom house in Chula Vista, even though she has no means to pay for it and her other expenses. She has collected many thousands of dollars from Minutemen over the past few months to help pay her rent.

Minutemen do not advocate the burning in public of any national flags. We demand the securing of our borders and enforcement of our current immigration laws, but we operate peacefully and within the law. We have made tremendous progress in this fight against illegal immigration in the past 18 months and we will not throw it all away and stoop to the open borders anarchists' level with radical, law-breaking public behavior and activities.

At the advice of his attorney, Jeff Schwilk will have no further comment on the false allegations and attacks. Justice will be served in a court of law and these rebel insurgents will be exposed and neutralized! We are as committed as ever to winning this war for the future of America and invite all Americans in San Diego County to join us in this fight. Together we will defeat these forces of evil, both foreign and domestic.

- Mike Spencer, SDMM Spokesman

here's their spin...

http://www.sdminutemen.com/

Minutemen homes raided by San Diego Police Department.

On March 21st, San Diego Police served vague search warrants on the homes of Jeff Schwilk and Julie Adams. They say they were looking for evidence of who vandalized the migrant camps in Rancho Penasquitos on January 27th. They siezed computers, cameras, cell phones, and numerous documents related to Minuteman activities; essentially, all pertinent items for running the San Diego Minutemen organization. The San Diego Minutemen have categorically denied any involvement in the alleged vandalism of the illegal squatter camps of Rancho Penasquitos. The San Diego Minutemen have, and will continue to, monitor these illegal migrant camps to ensure that they are removed promptly, as promised by Mayor Jerry Sanders and Captain Boyd Long (SDPD) at a meeting in January. Radical illegal alien activist Claudia Smith has worked tirelessly over the past year to keep American citizens away from the migrant camps. She has been involved in several false claims against American citizens in and near McGonigle Canyon over the past 10 months. We hope that Claudia Smith did not stage the alleged vandalism of the migrant camps; however, we trust that SDPD is investigating her as vigorously as they are against the American citizens, who are only trying to protect their communities from the ravages of unchecked illegal immigration.

-The Leadership of the San Diego Minutemen

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/02/news/sandiego/11_38_773_1_07.txt

Perhaps this is why?

Anti-illegal immigration group files complaint against San Diego Police

By: SARAH WILKINS - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- A member of an anti-illegal immigration group filed a complaint with the San Diego County grand jury Thursday in response to what he described as a failure by the San Diego Police Department to adequately respond to an incident of prostitution and human trafficking in migrant camps near McGonigle Canyon, an area where hundreds of migrant workers were evicted last year.

However, police Capt. Boyd Long said that a recent investigation and surveillance of the rural area between Rancho Penasquitos and Carmel Valley produced no evidence of prostitution or trafficking.

The complaint, filed by Los Angeles resident John Monti of the anti-illegal immigration group Save Our State, calls for the investigation of an incident reported the afternoon of Dec. 2. Officers responding to reports of prostitutes brought into the canyon allegedly refused to investigate an area where the alleged sex workers were reportedly seen with about a dozen male migrant workers. According to the complaint, which names two police officers and two police captains as defendants, the alleged prostitutes were "obviously underage."

"These officers refused to look for the girls other than take a cursory look around the area and said it was impossible to prove prostitution," the complaint states. "They even refused to question the two men (pimps?) standing near the sex areas."

San Diego Minutemen founder Jeff Schwilk, who said he witnessed and filmed the incident, said the officers "did not even seem interested ... and said it was hard to prove prostitution unless (you see) a money exchange."

"We don't feel the Police Department handled this properly," Schwilk said, adding that his group searched the area in an effort to find the men and alleged prostitutes. The group found a backpack containing such items as toilet paper and condoms that belonged to one of the women, he said.

Monti said in an interview Thursday night that he filed the grand jury complaint because police officials he spoke to were largely unresponsive.

"I think (filing the complaint) is the most effective way," he said, adding that he had been told an internal investigation would take place. "There's not that many other avenues to be effective."

Monti arrived at McGonigle Canyon about an hour after the alleged incident began, and based the complaint on his observations, video recorded by members of the San Diego Minutemen and conversations with Minutemen members, he said.

Long, of the San Diego Police Department's northern division, said that he did not have information specific to the Dec. 2 allegations, but police conducted surveillance and undercover operations weeks after that date in response to complaints.

The area where the alleged incident took place was investigated by the department's vice unit and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency's human trafficking unit, and no evidence ---- including "telltale" signs such as ripped underwear, nylons or condom wrappers ---- was ever found indicating the crimes took place, Long said.

"We set up a survey area and found no evidence of human trafficking or prostitution," he said.

For two years, the department has had two "migrant liaison" officers who patrol the area and respond to issues there, and "never once was human trafficking (reported) going on," he said. No arrests have been made in connection to prostitution in the area, Long added.

Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for the federal immigration office in San Diego, said that sex crimes have not been reported recently in McGonigle Canyon, and a lone incident reported just over a year ago was unsubstantiated.

Investigation of alleged sex crimes includes identifying victims, including age and nationality, as well as looking for links to organized crime and tracing money traded in the crime, Mack said.

"No. 1 is finding out whether lives are in danger, if (victims) are sex slaves," Mack said.

Achieving solutions to problems in migrant communities is "not as quick as we'd like it to be, not as quick as the public would like to see," Long said, adding that residents should call police and not "take it upon themselves to remove the camps." However, law enforcement officials must "look responsibly in a logical fashion" in approaching problems, or migrants will simply move to another location, Long said.

Chuck Martin, an assistant to the coordinator of the county grand jury, said the office does not comment on complaints or investigations.

However, once a letter of complaint is received, it must be reviewed by "appropriate committees" to determine whether the case will be taken up by the jury, Martin said. The process can take up to five weeks, he added.

The county grand jury does not conduct criminal investigations or hand down indictments. It does investigate citizen complaints about government agencies in the county and look into issues grand jurors raise about local governing bodies.

The panel prepares written reports about its investigations and recommends changes for the agencies. State law requires agencies involved to file responses to the grand jury's reports, but the grand jury has no formal power to enforce its recommendations.

Contact staff writer Sarah Wilkins at (760) 761-4414 or swilkins@nctimes.com.