Tianna Arata held residents ‘hostage,’ SLO County DA’s Office says
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office for the first time outlined in court its criminal case against local Black Lives Matter activist Tianna Arata, who prosecutors say held residents “hostage” during a July 21 protest when she and other marchers blocked traffic on Highway 101 and downtown city streets.
The fiery court document filed late last week written by Deputy District Attorney Delaney Henretty quotes Martin Luther King Jr. in response to a legal challenge by Arata’s defense attorneys, who seek to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds.
The defense’s argument boiled down to an allegation that Arata was targeted for prosecution while others who organized and participated in the event are not facing any charges.
Henretty in his response, however, laid out a specific timeline of events based on video evidence, witness interviews, texts and emails, and social media activity, that the DA’s Office says shows Arata was personally involved in ignoring the former police chief’s warning about marching on the freeway, and personally took part in blocking motorists.
“She purposely ignored the offers of assistance and guidance on how to conduct a safe and lawful protest because of her animosity and hatred for the police. She deliberately disregarded the safety and liberty of the people in this county and purposefully held them hostage,” Henretty wrote.
“In this context, ‘no justice, no peace’ really means ‘intimidation, power and control,’” he added. “Join the mob, or you will have no peace. Do what we say, or we will take your peace and liberty.”
Arata is facing 13 misdemeanors including false imprisonment and obstructing freedom of movement on a public street. She has not entered a plea.
Prosecutors on Friday added three co-defendants to her ongoing case, and separately charged three others over other confrontations between motorists and protesters on July 21, bringing the total number of people facing charges over the July 21 protest to eight.
Protesters and witnesses have told The Tribune that several motorists were aggressive and a couple actually hit marchers, though no one was seriously hurt. No motorist has faced prosecution for their actions on July 21.
Arata and her co-defendants are scheduled for an arraignment hearing Thursday, when San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Matthew Guerrero is scheduled to hear the defense’s motion to dismiss the case, which may include arguments from the prosecution.
A protest hosted by the Free Tianna Coalition — which includes RACE Matters SLO, Black Lives Matter Community Action, Women’s March SLO and Bend the Arc Jewish Action — is scheduled for outside the San Luis Obispo Courthouse at 8 a.m.
The DA’s Office lays out its case
In his opposition to the defense motion, Henretty begins by saying that there is “nothing more beloved and sacred” than the People’s duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
He wrote that “nothing could be further from the truth” than the defense’s assertion that Arata was targeted for practicing free speech.
“One cannot violate another person’s safety and liberty, and then invoke free speech as a defense,” he wrote.
Henretty writes that it is beyond the scope of the upcoming hearing to address whether there is or is not systemic racism, as the defense has alleged in the case.
“Freedom of speech through lawful protest is a fundamental right in our Constitution, but that speech or protest cannot stand when it violates the laws, and liberty of others through unlawful assembly, detention, obstruction, and harassment of others,” the filing reads.
In his timeline of events, Henretty writes that Arata “led protesters” from the highway back to city streets, where “she actively chased down vehicles, sprinting ahead of the group of protesters where she illegally detained the occupants of the vehicles on our public streets.” The prosecutor alleges that Arata waited for others to surround the vehicles before moving back to the march.
“The defendant’s actions showed a deliberate disregard for the rights and liberties of others,” the filing says.
Henretty wrote that Arata and fellow organizers Jalen Hamler and Xavier Moore agreed in a June 3 meeting with former San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell that future marches they were involved in would not end up on the highway.
“At no time during the meeting did the defendant, Hamlin or Moore deny their leadership role in the group,” Henretty wrote, adding that in the coming days, a series of text messages showed Cantrell understood Arata to be a leader of the group.
On July 20, the DA’s Office says, Cantrell sent a text message to Arata asking about the protest planned the next day, and a police captain sent an email with instructions on how to apply for a permit for the event.
According to the filing, Arata responded to Cantrell’s text with, “Hey honestly there is no plan for tomorrow but its peaceful that’s all l can really say I’m not sure how many people either.”
Henretty writes that during the July 21 march, Arata wore a “black jersey with a graphic and the word ‘Riots” on the front,” and “held an American flag mounted upside-down on a flagpole.”
While on the highway, Arata stood up on the center metal guardrail and addressed her fellow marchers via a bullhorn, saying at one point, “l don’t want to be arrested today, but l will be arrested today if that’s what it comes to,” the filing says.
At one point, the DA’s Office says, Arata stood in front of a black BMW and shouted to the driver, “You stand with us?” The driver said something in the affirmative, but she and fellow protesters Sam Grocott and Marcus Montgomery — who were charged with misdemeanors over the alleged incident — continued to block the vehicle.
In another alleged incident, the driver of a Dodge pickup truck told Hamler that his daughter was pregnant and the stress of the situation may induce labor, the DA’s Office says. Arata walked up and spoke with Hamler while he argued with the driver, leading to one of the false imprisonment charges Arata is facing.
Arata ran ahead of marchers and blocked oncoming vehicles two other times in the downtown area, Henretty says, and Amman Asfaw — chairperson of the city’s Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Task Force who was also charged with a misdemeanor last week — sat in front of a sedan whose driver told marchers “he just wanted to go home,” Henretty wrote.
Up to eight vehicles at one time were prevented from leaving the area of California and Monterey streets, the DA’s Office says, and Arata taunted one of the drivers.
“’Do I let ‘em go, ya’ll?“ the DA’s Office says Arata said. “The defendant then taunted the driver of one of the vehicles by yelling, ‘You’re caught now!’ and, ‘l don’t care where you gotta be, n-----s dying every day!’”
Henretty recounts how Arata led protesters past Finney’s and Guiseppe’s restaurants, yelling “F--k your comfort” at diners, and at another point threw the American flag to the ground, and stomped and spit on it.
The prosecutor says Arata swung the flagpole at a Honda Pilot that was “not driving recklessly” on Pacific and Chorro streets. That driver later told police he was afraid he would be pulled from the vehicle, the filing says.
Later, as Arata was being arrested at Mitchell Park, protesters Marcus Montgomery, Joshua Powell, and Elias Bautista intefered with officers, showing “deference to the defendant as a leader and somebody for whom they were willing to risk arrest.”
The DA’s Office quotes statements from several other protesters and speakers at subsequent public rallies that the prosecution says shows protesters knew they were breaking the law in the July 21 march
Back at Mitchell Park before her arrest, Arata told he crowd: “F--k that, we are not going for it. We are not going to be complacent and we are not going to take orders from pigs.”
“The defendant’s words, her upside-down, torn flag and the shirt she was wearing, with ‘Riots’ emblazoned on the front, show the multiple acts of falsely imprisoning motorists on the freeway and throughout the city were planned,” Henretty wrote.
The document quotes the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King: “Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 4:11 PM.
