Supporters of SLO activist Tianna Arata gathered 544,000 signatures. DA won’t take them
A handful of local Black Lives Matter organizers stood at the San Luis Obispo Superior Courthouse steps underneath the District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday afternoon, pondering their next move after the agency declined to receive a delivery of roughly a half-million signatures gathered in support of a local activist.
A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office said it will not consider the petitions but will “follow the law without regard for political pressure or political sentiment.”
Leiyahna Jefferson, one of five local activists who intended to drop off the paperwork, said the DA’s Office told them it would not be accepting any petitions related to 20-year-old Black activist Tianna Arata.
Arata was arrested along with another protester, Elias Bautista, following a July 21 march in San Luis Obispo.
A Change.org petition by the #FreeTianna Coalition had attracted more than 544,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon after Arata’s case gained international attention and sparked more local protests over the past six weeks.
Neither Arata nor Bautista had been formally charged as of Tuesday, two days before their scheduled arraignment Thursday morning. The San Luis Obispo Police Department, however, recommended that prosecutors file five felonies and three misdemeanors against Arata and three felonies against Bautista.
Both Arata and Bautista have been out of custody since shortly after their arrests.
Arata’s attorney said Wednesday he expects his client to appear in court via Zoom conference from his San Luis Obispo office — not uncommon for defendants who are out of custody during the COVID-19 pandemic — but he said he has not heard from the DA’s Office whether they will file charges.
Bautista told The Tribune he is required to appear in court.
Black Lives Matter protesters collect supporters’ signatures
Jefferson said Tuesday that she understands the District Attorney’s Office review of the case is still under way, but added that the decision makers in the agency should accept and acknowledge the concerns many in the community and beyond have voiced over the controversial arrests.
“That’s our goal, to show that people support (Black Lives Matter protests) and they support Tianna and what we’re trying to do,” Jefferson said. “That’s our main goal: for them to drop the charges.”
The group said the delivery boxes contained sheets of paper generated by Change.org containing the signatures of more than 500,000 people, mostly from cities across the United States. Some of the papers examined by reporters showed signatures from people from as far away as Canada and the Philippines.
Asked what the group planned to do with the stacks of paperwork if the District Attorney’s Office won’t accept them, Jefferson looked down at the boxes and shook her head.
“Man, that’s a lot,” she said. “We just found this out right now, but we’ll come up with a plan.”
“People are still signing it,” group member Bikram Thiara said of the Change.org petition while scrolling down on his cell phone. “Fifteen minutes ago, four minutes ago, a minute ago — I keep refreshing the page and people are literally still signing it.”
“We just want to deliver the voice of the people to our public officials. That’s how a democracy works,” Thiara added. “It’s kind of ridiculous that they don’t want to hear our voice, that they don’t want to hear the people’s voice.
“All the people, over 500,000 people not just in SLO, not just in the 805, not just in California, but across the nation, across the world.”
SLO County DA’s Office has ‘no legal obligation’ to accept petitions
Assistant district attorney Eric Dobroth confirmed in an emailed statement to The Tribune on Tuesday that the group attempted to deliver boxed documents at about 2:45 p.m.
“From social media posts it appears that they relate to our office’s review of the arrest of Tianna Arata on July 21, 2020,” Dobroth wrote. “Our office is not accepting the petitions, as they have no bearing on the law or circumstances resulting in Ms. Arata’s arrest.”
Dobroth said that his office is focused on reviewing the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s recommendation that criminal charges be filed, and said that Arata remains scheduled to appear in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on Thursday.
“Over the last month, our office has engaged many community members expressing varied viewpoints on the arrest of Ms. Arata and suggesting (often demanding) that we make a particular filing decision,” Dobroth wrote in the email. “While mindful of the complexity and sensitivity of the broader social justice conversation, we would be in violation of our ethical duty if we were to make a filing decision based on public sentiment.”
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“The District Attorney’s Office remains committed to the fair, objective and fact-based review of the evidence in determining if criminal charges should be brought, and if so what charges,” the email reads.
Dobroth added: “In short, we will follow the law without regard for political pressure or political sentiment.”
Asked whether his agency is required to accept communications from the public, Doboth clarified that his office “is under no legal obligation to accept ‘petitions’ requesting that we not file a particular case.”
Patrick Fisher, Arata’s San Luis Obispo-based trial attorney, declined to comment on the petitions Tuesday.
At about 5:15 p.m., about 50 supporters of the activists arrived outside the courthouse and began dividing up the papers into smaller packaging in order to mail them to the DA’s Office.
One organizer said supporters were currently fundraising to afford the postage so that the agency receives the documents by Thursday.
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 6:22 PM.
