Will attorney general take over Tianna Arata case? State wants 30 days to consider appeal
The California Attorney General’s Office asked a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge on Tuesday for more time to decide whether it will take over the court cases of Tianna Arata and a group of local Black Lives Matter protesters charged in connection with a controversial march on Highway 101.
The hearing Tuesday came days after Judge Matthew Guerrero disqualified the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting the case due primarily to a “clear conflict” resulting from a fundraising email for the re-election campaign of District Attorney Dan Dow. The email was sent within days of the first charges being filed and that appeared to reference the case.
Arata, who was arrested following the July demonstration and charged with 13 misdemeanors, and her co-defendants — Amman Asfaw, Marcus Montgomery and Joshua Powell — have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges.
In a separate but related case, Sam Grocott, Jerad Hill and Robert Lastra have also pleaded not guilty to charges related to a confrontation between protesters and a motorist on Highway 101 that resulted in Lastra allegedly shattering a car’s back window after Grocott was struck by the vehicle.
On Friday, Guerrero heard motions in San Luis Obispo Superior Court by defense attorneys to disqualify the District Attorney’s Office from the Arata case, force prosecutors to release internal records to the defense, place a gag order on the San Luis Obispo Police Department and the California Highway Patrol for alleged “blatantly false statements,” and dismiss the case under First Amendment protections.
In addition to the disqualification of Dow and his office, Guerrero granted the release of the internal records.
A deputy attorney general participated in Friday’s hearing via Zoom and indicated that her agency was not very familiar with the case.
Appearing in the courtroom on Tuesday, a different deputy attorney general, William Frank, told Guerrero that he was assigned to the case over the weekend and had an appointment to receive the county District Attorney’s Office’s case file later in the day.
“We’ve had some preliminary meetings in my office with the different chain of command and what I need to do is see what this case is about, go through that file and become familiar with it, look more at the recusal motion and the ruling in that,” said Frank, who is based in Los Angeles. “And first, come to some preliminary decision whether or not we’re going to file some notice of appeal, which would stay these proceedings.”
Frank continued: “And if we do not do that, then I have to become more familiar with the case so I can take the next steps. ... We would like the the opportunity to get familiar with the facts. I don’t even have the case file.”
He then requested the 30-day continuance to determine if the agency will appeal the court’s ruling.
“Now, if we file a notice of appeal, that goes through its process. If we don’t file a notice of appeal, we would then take over prosecution of the case, by statute,” Frank said. ”I don’t believe there’s any discussion about — there is a mechanism but I don’t think it’s applicable in this case — what an alternative mechanism would be.”
Tianna Arata, co-defendents face charges for SLO protest
The charges against the four co-defendants stem from a July 21 protest in which demonstrators marched on Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo, blocking traffic for less than an hour.
Arata, 20, was arrested after the protest as she was loading signs into a car at Mitchell Park. The former San Luis Obispo resident faces charges of false imprisonment, obstructing a public thoroughfare and resisting arrest.
Her co-defendants — Asfaw, 22; Montgomery, 24, and Powell, 23 — are facing between one and three similar misdemeanors each. They all live in San Luis Obispo.
Each charge carries a maximum of six months in San Luis Obispo County Jail and a $1,000 fine.
While the county District Attorney’s Office argues the protesters, led by Arata, held residents “hostage” on the highway and elsewhere around the downtown area, the defense has argued in court documents the prosecution “would severely chill lawful assembly and freedom of speech” and “is not even remotely ethical.”
In a case that has attracted national attention, one of the prosecution’s alleged victims publicly accused the District Attorney’s Office of trying to convince him he was victimized by the July 21 protest, despite his objections.
Several other people are facing both felony and misdemeanor charges related to a June 1 protest in which San Luis Obispo police officers fired tear gas and pepper bullets at demonstrators. Those defendants are also scheduled to appear in court Wednesday and Thursday.
On Tuesday, Guerrero stated for the record that an eighth protester arrested in July — Elias Bautista, who is being charged with a felony and two misdemeanors after kicking an officer at the protest at issue in the case — has also joined in Arata’s successful recusal motion. Bautista is scheduled for a hearing on that Wednesday.
Frank challenged the timeliness of Bautista’s joining in that motion, but said he would attend Wednesday’s hearing via Zoom.
Guerrero scheduled a trial setting conference in the Arata case for Jan. 19.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, Patrick Fisher, one of Arata’s attorneys, said only that should the Attorney General’s Office decide to proceed to the state Appellate Court, he’s confident Guerrero’s ruling to recuse the District Attorney’s Office will stand.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 11:36 AM.
