Drone video shows car hitting Hwy. 101 protester. CHP and DA are ‘lying,’ attorney says
An attorney for a Black Lives Matter activist facing criminal charges after he was struck by a motorist during a July march is demanding the CHP arrest the driver and correct the record about what occurred during the incident.
The attorney representing Sam Grocott says previously unreleased San Luis Obispo police drone footage of the July 21, 2020, incident on Highway 101 shows the motorist of a silver BMW is guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. The driver has not been publicly identified and is considered by county prosecutors to be a victim.
A letter sent to CHP late last week by San Francisco-based attorney Vincent Barrientos also reveals details about what the motorist told CHP officers following the confrontation, including racist language and threats against protesters.
The drone footage submitted as evidence in the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office’s case against Grocott, and subsequently provided to The Tribune by Barrientos, shows what happened from above.
In the video, the BMW is seen attempting to drive around the protesters’ blockade on the shoulder of the southbound lane. Following a verbal exchange, the motorist drives straight into Grocott, who ends up on the hood of the vehicle for about seven seconds as it accelerates past the crowd.
While Grocott is on the hood, protester Robert Lastra Jr. smashes the back windshield with a skateboard and another demonstrator, Jerad Hill, also strikes the front of the car with a skateboard.
Grocott is seen jumping off the hood as the BMW speeds away. No one was seriously injured.
But unlike other drone footage of the July 21, 2020, event shared by police in the days that followed, footage of the Highway 101 incident had not been released.
Barrientos says that’s because it contradicts the CHP’s version of events that is now being used by prosecutors against Grocott and others. Protesters who witnessed the incident told The Tribune that the driver caused the altercation and should be charged.
“Local law enforcement and DA (Dan) Dow are openly lying to the public,” Barrientos wrote in a statement to The Tribune. “They are misrepresenting the facts of the case to the public. By intentionally choosing not to release the video footage, they were able to provide false statements to the press and control and shape the narrative to fit their personal agenda.”
Barrientos said he is releasing the footage to the public to protect Grocott’s right to a fair trial, and that he has “an ethical obligation to get the truth out to the people of SLO.”
“They have a right to see what really happened,” Barrientos said.
The CHP declined to comment for this article.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office released a statement late Tuesday saying the agency is “confident that the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Grocott’s arrest will be fully and fairly revealed in court once the matter is tried to a jury of our community members.”
Incident led to criminal charges against protesters
Approximately 300 protesters marched on Highway 101 near the Santa Rosa Street off-ramp during the protest on July 21, 2020.
The confrontation involving the BMW prompted the CHP to issue news releases seeking information about the alleged suspects. In those releases, the agency said that a group of protesters circled a motorist who was trying to drive around them and attacked the vehicle.
The CHP described one person jumping on the hood of the car and another person breaking the back window with a skateboard. The agency said a 4-year-old boy was in the back seat at the time.
Grocott, Lastra and Hill were ultimately identified by investigators as responsible for alleged offenses against the BMW and two other vehicles and charged as co-defendants.
Grocott, 26, is facing three misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment. Hill, 27, faces one false imprisonment charge and one count of misdemeanor vandalism. Only Lastra, 22, is facing a felony count of vandalism, as well as a misdemeanor count of false imprisonment.
Their cases are being tried separately from another group of Black Lives Matter protesters that includes Tianna Arata and three others, who have all pleaded not guilty to a host of misdemeanor charges related to the blocking of vehicles during the July 21 demonstration.
Local court proceedings in those cases are currently suspended due to the state’s ongoing appeal of a Superior Court judge’s ruling to disqualify the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office over campaign fundraising by District Attorney Dow that the judge found to be a conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court hearing has been scheduled for March 3, when Superior Court Judge Rita Federman will hear a motion to dismiss the case against Grocott, according to court records.
Attorney demands CHP arrest driver
In his Feb. 9 letter to CHP Capt. Greg Klingberg, Barrientos demanded that the agency immediately send out a public statement to San Luis Obispo County media “and inform them that you lied to the public when you misrepresented the facts of the case against my client, and provide the SLO press with accurate facts” regarding the case.
The letter demands that the driver of the BMW — whose name is redacted in a copy of the letter provided to The Tribune by Barrientos — be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
Barrientos wrote that if the captain is “unwilling to do your job and amend your erroneous actions, you should immediately resign from your position” with the CHP, the letter reads.
The letter specifically cites Klingberg’s statements to KSBY-TV in the days following the protest.
“One of them jumped on the hood of the vehicle,” Klingberg told KSBY-TV. “The other, after the gentleman had then jumped off the hood of the vehicle, the vehicle then had a path to leave the area and as they were leaving, another person took their skateboard and hit the rear window of the vehicle as it was leaving.”
Barrientos rejected that characterization wholeheartedly.
“Your entire statement is patently false, and contradicted by incontrovertible video evidence,” Barrientos wrote in the letter, saying the video showed that the BMW intentionally drove into Grocott.
“The video shows that my client is on the hood of (the driver’s) car for approximately seven seconds, before a skateboard is thrown, hitting the back window of (the driver’s) vehicle while he is trying to drive away with my client on the hood of his vehicle,” the letter says. “The video footage clearly shows that the skateboard was thrown by Mr. Lastra in defense of my client who otherwise may have faced a fatal result.”
Driver made racial slurs, letter says
In addition, according to Barrientos’ letter, evidence given to Grocott’s defense shows the unnamed driver of the silver BMW made several threatening and racist statements to CHP officers after the incident.
Barrientos’ letter says that the driver told a CHP officer, “I’m about to go 100 miles per hour through that m—g retarded stupid ass crowd!” and “These lame f--s. I should have brought my Glock.”
In a recorded statement to another officer, the motorist reportedly said: “I’m going to fish off the Goddamned pier, drink some wine, vape, like, f---k these f---king idiots. Not one f---king colored person in the whole Goddamned mob. You guys gotta be s---ing me. Like you guys are doing this dumb s--t and there’s not one colored person here. I mean, like how many colored people you see in f--king Beverly Hills fighting for white rights? Like f--king idiots.”
Barrientos says that while using “racial slurs” is generally not a crime, the agency’s failure to arrest the driver “raises alarming concerns” that the CHP is supporting what Barrientos called Dow’s “thinly veiled white power agenda.”
Dow, Barrientos claims, has “aligned himself with white conservative extremist values,” and only charged Grocott, who is white, “after it became obvious to the good people of SLO that Mr. Dow was abusing his prosecutorial discretion to selectively charge only black protesters.”
The attorney said it was “inexcusable” that the agency failed to arrest “someone that admitted to driving his car into protesters because he had a hotel to check into and did not want to ruin his vacation by waiting for the protesters.”
The letter pleads with Klingberg to “turn a corner, amend your behavior, and do your job.”
The letter demanded the agency correct the record by Monday. A local CHP spokesman said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Barrientos told The Tribune that “no rational person, regardless of your political leanings, would believe that you can drive your car into a person because you are in a hurry to check into a hotel.”
“Law enforcement and DA Dow owe the public a legitimate explanation as to why they are permitting a racist, violent criminal to remain free when there is video evidence showing he committed a crime,” he said.
In their statement released late Tuesday, the District Attorney’s Office said it “will not respond to the non-fact based rhetoric of Mr. Grocott’s counsel.”
The statement alleges that California court professionalism rules bar “any attorney involved in the litigation of a case from making a statement the attorney reasonable knows will be disseminated to the public and that has a substantial likelihood of prejudicing the case.”
“This includes not only statements by an individual attorney, but the public release of evidence outside of the court process that poses the same threat to due process of law,” the DA’s statement says. “The rules of professional responsibility are intended to assure the fair application and due process of law for all parties.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 3:01 PM.
