{"article":{"id":207965,"heading":"Judge drops charges against SoCal immigration rights","author":"MinuteKKKlan are scum!","created":"2007-10-03 03:22:07","modified":"2007-10-03 15:47:06","last_modified":"Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:47:06","article":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/news\/ci_7057258\">http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/news\/ci_7057258<\/a> <br><br> Judge drops charges against SoCal immigration rights <br>  <br> activist <br><br> The Associated Press <br><br> Article Launched: 10\/01\/2007 09:34:23 PM PDT <br><br> COSTA MESA, Calif.-The city's charges against an <br>  <br> immigration rights activist alleging he disrupted a <br>  <br> city council meeting were dismissed Monday after a <br>  <br> judge found that an attorney representing Costa Mesa <br>  <br> was not a public prosecutor. <br><br> Lawyers representing Benito Acosta said a Superior <br>  <br> Court judge dismissed two misdemeanor counts against <br>  <br> the activist after learning that attorney Danny <br>  <br> Peelman didn't meet the requirements to be a city <br>  <br> prosecutor. <br><br> The requirements include a written appointment to the <br>  <br> position by the city attorney, and taking an oath to <br>  <br> be a city prosecutor, said Hector Villagra, director <br>  <br> of the American Civil Liberties Union's Orange County <br>  <br> office. <br><br> \"We never felt that he should have been prosecuted in <br>  <br> the first place,\" Villagra said. He called the city's <br>  <br> decision to prosecute Acosta \"politically motivated.\" <br><br> After business hours calls to Peelman and Costa Mesa <br>  <br> City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow were not <br>  <br> immediately returned. <br><br> The case stems from a Jan. 3, 2006 city council <br>  <br> meeting which drew protesters of the council's <br>  <br> decision to train police officers to enforce <br>  <br> immigration laws. The decision made Costa Mesa the <br>  <br> first city in the nation to trains its officers to <br>  <br> work with federal officials to determine the <br>  <br> immigration status of those arrested for serious <br>  <br> crimes. <br><br> Acosta, a college student who also goes by the name <br>  <br> Coyotl Tezcalipoca, was arrested after he urged the <br>  <br> audience to stand if they opposed the council's <br>  <br> decision. <br><br> He also called for the recall of Mayor Allan Mansoor <br>  <br> and the other two council members who supported the <br>  <br> plan. <br><br> Acosta was booked for investigation of disturbing an <br>  <br> assembly, interfering with a council meeting and <br>  <br> resisting an officer, but the Orange County District <br>  <br> Attorney's office declined to file charges against <br>  <br> him, the ACLU said. <br><br> The ACLU later filed a federal lawsuit on Acosta's <br>  <br> behalf, alleging the city council violated his free <br>  <br> speech rights by denying him the three minutes <br>  <br> allotted to speakers who wish to address the panel. <br><br> The city filed the misdemeanor charges against Acosta <br>  <br> after the ACLU filed the federal lawsuit, Villagra said.\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"The city's charges against an\r\nimmigration rights activist alleging he disrupted a\r\ncity council meeting were dismissed Monday after a\r\njudge found that an attorney representing Costa Mesa\r\nwas not a public prosecutor.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2007\/10\/207965.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}