{"article":{"id":207958,"heading":"Judge dismisses case against Coyotl Tezcatlipoca","author":"Thomas Paine","created":"2007-10-03 02:17:32","modified":"2007-10-03 15:51:16","last_modified":"Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:51:16","article":"\nhttp:\/\/www.ocregister.com\/news\/case-acosta-duren-1869674-mesa-costa<\/a>
Monday, October 1, 2007
Judge dismisses Acosta trial
Costa Mesa's case against Benito Acosta for disrupting
a City Council meeting has been dismissed because the
city attorney was not sworn in.
By NIYAZ PIRANI
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
NEWPORT BEACH The jury was dismissed Monday morning,
and by the afternoon the case of Costa Mesa against
Benito Acosta for disrupting a January 2006 City
Council meeting followed suit.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kelly MacEachern
threw out the case because City Prosecutor Dan Peelman
was not sworn in as a public prosecutor before the
case was filed last year, said Acosta's attorney B.
Kwaku Duren.
Duren, who will act as co-counsel for Acosta with the
American Civil Liberties Union in a federal case
against Costa Mesa , said the dismissal is only
further ammunition in the civil case.
\"The decision of the court this afternoon had nothing
to do with the merits of the case,\" Peelman said
Acosta, an immigration activist who goes by the name
of Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, faced a maximum fine of $2,000
and 1 year in jail if convicted.
Contact the writer: 714-445-6689 or
npirani@ocregister.com<\/a> \n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Costa Mesa's case against Benito Acosta for disrupting\r\na City Council meeting has been dismissed ","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2007\/10\/207958.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}