Appeal over DA’s disqualification delays Tianna Arata court case. What happens now?
Attorneys for two groups of Black Lives Matter protesters appeared before a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge on Tuesday to decide how to proceed in their ongoing criminal cases while the state appellate court decides whether the local district attorney can prosecute the cases.
Tuesday was scheduled as the date for a trial setting conference for Tianna Arata and three co-defendants — Amman Asfaw, Marcus Montgomery and Joshua Powell.
But Superior Court Judge Michael Duffy ruled to suspend proceedings in the case pending the appeal filed by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office and the state Attorney General’s Office over the district attorney’s disqualification.
The hearing Tuesday came about a month 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 appeared to reference the case when seeking campaign donations.
Arata and her co-defendants have pleaded not guilty to a host of misdemeanor counts, each of which carries a maximum of six months in San Luis Obispo County Jail and a $1,000 fine, over a July 21, 2020, protest in San Luis Obispo in which demonstrators marched on Highway 101.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Duffy discussed how the case may proceed going forward with attorneys for the defendants, deputy attorney general William Frank and deputy district attorney Delaney Henretty, the original local prosecutor on the case.
A couple of attorneys noted that there is case precedent for not moving forward with the cases while the appeal is under consideration.
There is a series of deadlines in the appellate case for the parties to submit various oppositions and replies before the court begins working on its ruling, roughly in the ballpark of 90 days.
Asked by Duffy whether the parties wished to schedule the next hearing for 90 days out, Frank told Duffy that in the state’s opinion, it would be “extremely optimistic” to expect the appeal would be close to a ruling in 90 days.
In response, Arata’s attorney, Patrick Fisher, asked that the court schedule the next hearing for 45 days out so that all parties could be provided updates on the progress of the appeal.
The parties agreed and Duffy scheduled a progress hearing for March 3.
That delay will also affect the cases of five other protesters between the ages of 19 and 26 years old arrested June 1, 2020, whose attorneys also went before Duffy Tuesday for pre-trial conferences in their cases.
Gianna Stoddard, 27; Henry Popp, 19; and Abigail Landis, Michael Gates and Alexandra Bahramzadehebrahimi, all 22, face misdemeanor charges for allegedly obstructing officers and failing to disperse the demonstration where police shot tear gas at protesters.
Although the cases of those protesters and Tianna Arata and her co-defendants are not directly related — and the June 1 group did not join in Arata’s effort to disqualify the district attorney in her and related cases — Duffy granted the defense’s request to continue their hearings until they could be heard with the other cases on March 3.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 12:45 PM.
