(Please repost where appropriate.)
Dear members of the community,
Firs of all, I would like to thank all of you who have offered us you support. The response of the community has been wonderful, and all your help and kind words have been greatly appreciated.
As many of you already know from the previous announcement, on Sunday, July 11, 2004, on the National Nude Recreation Weekend, five of us have been maliciously cited by sergeant John Velasquez, badge # 742, of the San Francisco police department, on our return trip from a nude bike ride free speech demonstration, with Cal. PC Sec. 314.1 - indecent exposure, a sex crime! There were only five of us left on this return trip, with no females, making us an easy target for harassment.
The Intention:
I would like to take a moment to stress that this case is not about our
demonstration, your political inclination, or what you think about public
nudity. This case is ONLY about the police having the ability to take law into
their own hands and using the power awarded to them for the purposes of
protecting and supporting the public, to intimidate, threaten, and harass. When
making this citation, sergeant Velasquez was aware that it was frivolous and
that we had not broken any laws.
If you had missed the first announcement, you may find it here: http://SanFrancisco.WorldNakedBikeRide.org/Resources/2004_St_John_Velasquez_Harassment/Community_announcement_1.html
The Update:
On August 16th, 2004, the five of us appeared in court for the citation we had received. Considering how ridiculous the citation was, we were expecting the case would be dropped at that point. The DA handling the case was not present, instead a substituting assistant DA was representing the "people". In stead of being told that the case was dropped, we were surprised with being charged with a brand new charge, not the one we had been cited with. We were charged with Cal. PC sec. 647(a) - Disorderly conduct. Although no longer a sex crime, the bait and switch meant we were no longer prepared with the demurer I had prepared, which had been targeted for 314.1 PC.
Even though my demurer was prepared for the wrong charge, I still presented it to the court. The judge rejected my request to dismiss, citing some code, 500..., which one the of the public defenders assigned to us for that hearing explained to me simply meant that she could only dismiss the case if we were in custody at the time. After a bit of commotion, another one of the defenders proposed to the judge that she could place us into temporary custody for the purpose of that exercise. The judge rejected his proposition citing another number.
By playing these games, the DA hopes to get a guilty plea from tired, frustrated, and often unrepresented victims. Not being legal experts, and not being well represented, we had then made, although not a very consequential, mistake, and plead not guilty to the new charges. Given the situation, we should not have entered a plea at that hearing, as no fair notice of the new charges had been given us at that point.
With more countless hours, and new research in hand, it has become very clear that the new charges are just as frivolous, and the DA's office is just playing games with us. Follow the link below. Pay special attention to the bolded underlined text in the article number 4 for substantiating data: http://SanFrancisco.WorldNakedBikeRide.org/Resources/2004_St_John_Velasquez_Harassment/
After the help of multiple attorneys, I had come across one, who was so outraged by what the DA's office was doing, she agreed to represent all five of us for a token amount of $100 total. She will be contacting the DA's office the first week of September in hopes of getting the charges dismissed. She will also handle all media and potential press conference on the day of the hearing.
Our pretrial hearing is scheduled for September 15, 2004.
What can you do:
Your support is invaluable! Please call the SF DA's office, and tell them that you are outraged by their malicious actions!
Here's how:
Call Allison Garbutt at 415-553-1803. She is the head of department 14, which handles our case.
Also call Victoria Baldocky at 415-553-1810. She is in charge of the misdemeanor office, and Allison Garbutt reports to her.
You will likely have to leave a message. Don't be afraid to give them your name and phone number, if you wish. Don't worry, they are not going to be calling you, but having a name behind the voice helps a lot. Also, if you are a SF resident, please so state.
The names of the five people cited are: Daniel, Christian, Paul, Dennis, and Dave. The citation date is July 11, 2004, section 314.1 of the penal code. The incident number is 040789101.
Also, call the SF PD and tell them that sergeant John Velasquez, badge # 742, abuses his power, and that you do not want people like himself serving in your police department, harassing your neighbors, and wasting your taxpayer money.
You can also help by volunteering your time, donating legal services, or donating money to our legal fund to sue the SF PD and the offending officer for abuse of power, intimidation, harassment, etc.
Thank you all for your support,
Daniel O. -
contact me
One of the five cited.
August 28, 2004.
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