3 more charged in Black Lives Matter protest that ended with Tianna Arata’s arrest
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office has filed charges against three more people who participated in a July 21 Black Lives Matter protest in which marchers blocked traffic on Highway 101.
Those facing charges include the chairperson for the city’s newly formed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force.
In the ongoing criminal case already filed against one of the protest’s organizers, Tianna Arata, county prosecutors on Friday amended that filed complaint to add three co-defendants, all young Black men from San Luis Obispo.
Between 200 and 300 people participated in the march and blocked traffic on the highway; the vast majority were white.
Including Arata and Elias Bautista, who is also facing charges for allegedly kicking a police officer during Arata’s arrest, only people of color have so far faced criminal charges over the July 21 event.
The District Attorney’s Office on Friday added 24-year-old Marcus Montgomery to four of the misdemeanor charges, including false imprisonment, obstructing the free movement of any person in a public place, and resisting or delaying a police officer. According to the complaint, the false imprisonment charge lists as a victim a John Doe, a “driver of Black 4-door BMW at aouthbound Hwy. 101 Santa Rosa Street off-ramp.”
In addition, Joshua Powell, 23, is charged with delaying two police officers, and Amman Asfaw, 22, is charged with a single count of false imprisonment. The complaint says that Asfaw violated the personal liberty of “occupants in 2012 white Honda sedan at the intersection of California Boulevard and Monterey Street.”
Each misdemeanor count carries a maximum sentence of six months in County Jail and a $1,000 fine.
Asfaw is a local youth leader in San Luis Obispo, the president of Cal Poly’s National Society of Black Engineers, and was recently appointed chairperson of San Luis Obispo City’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force.
Montgomery is a lifelong county resident and works at a local elder care facility.
Each man was served on Thursday afternoon with a letter to appear in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Oct. 22.
Groups accuse DA of discrimination
In response, RACE Matters SLO, a community group that has been involved in organizing numerous protests and other events throughout the summer, called the new charges a “moral outrage.”
“Once again, Black protesters are being singled out for participating in a protest with hundreds of other predominately white community members,” the organization said in a prepared statement. “These actions seek to intimidate people of color exercising their rights of free speech and is an effort to shut down dissent in our community.”
The group also accused elected District Attorney Dan Dow — who spoke Tuesday at a fundraiser for a California secessionist group with a controversial keynote speaker who told an enthusiastic crowd that systemic racism doesn’t exist — of discrimination.
“Through his actions and associations, the DA has shown his outright discrimination toward local protest and the young Black people participating,” RACE Matters said. “He is an elected official and is supposed to be the DA for the entire county, not just people who are aligned with him politically.”
Black Lives Matter Community Action, another of several local groups that has organized recent protests and other events, also said it is “outraged, but not surprised” at the new prosecution.
“BLMCA will continue to uplift and empower the local Black youth,” the statement reads. “Prior to these events, we have supported and encouraged the Black and BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) youth in San Luis Obispo and will continue to do so.”
On Sept. 17, San Luis Obispo attorney Patrick Fisher and Bay Area attorney Curtis Briggs, who are representing Arata pro bono, filed a challenge to the 13 misdemeanor charges against her, claiming the District Attorney’s Office’s prosecution “tramples” her First Amendment rights.
The filing seeks to dismiss the case, alleging that Arata, a young Black leader, is being singled out among the hundreds of marchers.
Fisher said Thursday after learning his client now had co-defendants in the case that the new charges are “an attempt to sidestep our (legal challenge) that Tianna Arata was targeted and subject to unequal protection under the law.”
“It’s an attempt to remedy a problem in the prosecution of Tianna,” Fisher said. “I never thought we’d be here in the middle of October and have the DA’s Office serving complaints on people for something that happened in mid-July.”
He said the fact that the District Attorney’s Office would now pursue charges against three Black men, out of hundreds of people who participated in the July 21 march, “really says a lot about this DA’s Office.”
Fisher noted Dow’s appearance at the secessionist group’s fundraiser, where speakers criticized the Black Lives Matter movement.
“It all starts to add up,” Fisher said.
Five other people were recently charged with misdemeanors over a June 1 protest in which officers in riot gear fired tear gas and pepper bullets to disperse a crowd.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 10:11 AM.
