Charges to be dismissed against 3 SLO protesters arrested in tear gas incident
Three San Luis Obispo residents arrested at a June Black Lives Matter protest that ended when police fired tear gas toward the crowd will have charges against them dismissed if they obey all laws for one year, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Under the terms of the agreement, arrest records for the three will also be sealed, meaning that the offenses will be deemed to have never occurred.
The resolution doesn’t obligate the defendants to take any action “other than remaining law-abiding (citizens), conduct which they have always displayed,” two of their attorneys said in a joint statement Tuesday.
Henry Popp, Alexandra BahramzadehEbrahimi and Gianna Stoddard had each pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to disperse the scene of a riot after a warning. Stoddard was additionally charged with obstructing an officer.
On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge granted diversion in the three cases. A court date has been scheduled for March 2022, when a judge will review the status of their completion with the diversion requirements.
Two more defendants from the same incident, Michael Gates and Abigail Landis, are also asking for diversion, and a judge will make a ruling during hearings over the next week, according to court records.
If agreed upon by a judge and defendant, the court’s misdemeanor diversion program typically allows a defendant to participate in some type of community service, classes or restorative justice option, based on the charge, rather than serve jail time.
The program, created under a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September, also prevents the defendant from having a criminal record.
Otherwise, misdemeanor charges carry a maximum penalty of six months in County Jail and a $1,000 fine.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jerret Gran said following Tuesday’s hearing that the resolution of court misdemeanor diversion “was a fair and reasonable one for these defendants given their lack of criminal history and the totality of the circumstances surrounding their conduct.”
Defendants do not admit guilt
Attorneys Kara Stein-Conaway and Adrienne Haddad, who are representing Popp and BahramzadehEbrahimi, respectively, said Tuesday via email that at a court hearing March 2, Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy asked the District Attorney’s Office for input on the diversion program as a resolution in the case.
Court records show that prosecutors asked the judge to require that diversion be conditioned upon completion of 20 hours of community service.
After hearing arguments, Duffy agreed that diversion would be a proper resolution, but denied the DA’s request that community service be immediately required, instead stipulating that 20 hours of community service work will be imposed should a defendant not obey all laws for one year.
The DA’s Office says community service will be required for Stoddard, however, because she was additionally charged with obstructing a peace officer.
Stein-Conaway and Haddad wrote that their clients submitted written statements to the court stating “that they maintain that they are innocent of the offenses with which they are charged and in accepting a diversion, they make no admission of wrongdoing.”
“Their actions in this incident were undertaken as part of their commitment to being responsible members of society,” the attorneys’ statement reads. “They maintain that their actions on June 1, 2020, were lawful and confirmed that they plan to continue to stand up in the face of injustice and to continue to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Last week, the District Attorney’s Office told a judge it supports misdemeanor diversion for five of seven other Black Lives Matter protesters charged in relation to a July 21 march that blocked traffic on Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo.
The offer — which deputy district attorney Delaney Henretty said was being made to quell community division that has arisen over the cases — does not apply to local organizer Tianna Arata nor another protester facing a felony.
No defendants in that case have yet accepted the proposed diversion.
What happened June 1, 2020
On June 1, demonstrators took to downtown San Luis Obispo streets to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. At one point in the afternoon, demonstrators marched onto Highway 101 and blocked traffic for about an hour before returning to city streets.
At about 8 p.m. that evening, after hundreds of protesters stood in a two-hour standoff with authorities near the police station, police in riot gear dispersed the crowd by firing rounds of tear gas and pepper bullets.
No injuries were reported, but jail logs that night showed seven protesters were arrested.
The Police Department released an after-action report on the incident, finding that, although there was room for improvement, officers’ actions were justified to disperse the crowd.
The report resulted in hours of emotional public comment from residents angry about the law enforcement reaction at a City Council meeting Feb. 17.
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 1:49 PM.
