A California Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s ruling that disqualified the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney from prosecuting the case against Tianna Arata.
Newly released drone footage from a July 21, 2020, protest showing the altercation between a driver and protesters on Highway 101 shows a different side than what the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and SLO County District Attorney s Office provided to the community and in the cases against seven of the protesters. click to enlarge Screenshot Courtesy Of SLO Police Department Drone Footage
EVIDENCE The driver of a silver 2016 BMW sedan collides with local Black Lives Matter protestors on the southbound side of Highway 101 on July 21, 2020. The footage, which is from the SLOPD and is evidence in the cases, was released Feb. 16 by Vincent Barrientos, a pro-bono attorney for Sam Grocott, one of the protesters who s facing three misdemeanor charges of violating the personal liberty of the drivers and occ
Cover Design by Alex Zuniga Everybody knows that the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest story of 2020, with social and political tensions coming in a very close second and almost certainly intertwined with the pandemic. Although California also had another record fire season in 2020, SLO County thankfully didn t. The happiest county on the California coast made national news several times this past year with SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson s and District Attorney Dan Dow s stance against Black Lives Matter protesters and COVID-19 regulations, the arrest and prosecution of protest leader Tianna Arata, and COVID-19 positive case numbers taking up the bulk of that national attention. Local residents seemed to take issue with everything facing each other in the streets with protests and anti-protests, bickering online in divergent Facebook groups and catty Instagram stories, shouting about COVID
Judge disqualifies SLO County District Attorney from prosecuting Tianna Arata case
Posted at 11:03 AM, Dec 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-11 18:25:52-05
A San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge on Friday approved a defense motion to disqualify the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney s Office from further prosecuting the case against community activist Tianna Arata.
Arata, who is charged with 13 misdemeanors in connection with a July 21 Black Lives Matter protest in San Luis Obispo, appeared in court via livestream Friday morning.
In court Thursday, her attorneys argued that District Attorney Dan Dow had made several statements on social media and at public events that show implicit bias against the Black Lives Matter movement.