Posted on 04/13/2011 9:15:21 PM PDT by SmithL
OAKLAND -- Two men arrested on suspicion of looting following a downtown rally after the verdict in the Oscar Grant slaying were ordered to pay $25,000 each to the owner of a jewelry store that was robbed, city officials announced Wednesday.
The city filed a lawsuit in October against Terry Williams, 33, of Oakland, and Gerald Dugas, 20, of Castro Valley. They were at the scene of a July 8 rally to protest the verdict of involuntary manslaughter returned against former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Grant on a train platform early of the morning of Jan. 1, 2009.
The rally began peacefully but turned violent in the late afternoon, with hundreds of people vandalizing and burglarizing nearby stores.
Among the victims was Ho Cho, then the owner of the JC Jewelry store on Broadway, which was broken into and ransacked while Cho, his girlfriend and others in the store tried to protect it.
In a court declaration that was translated from his native Korean, Cho said, "I was afraid I was going to be killed," defending himself and his girlfriend from rocks and glass looters were throwing at them.
A crowd of more than 200 people made its way through the store, according to City Attorney John Russo.
Cho said he saw one of the looters "punch my employee in the face. People tried to punch me and my girlfriend as well. I was so afraid that I could not think about the best way to protect myself."
"The financial damage was so bad that I had to close," Cho added. "I am afraid of people now and do not think positively anymore like I used to. My personality has changed, and I am very sad now."
Williams and Dugas were arrested that night and both were charged with burglary. Police said both were caught with jewelry from Cho's store.
The city filed suit against them under a California law that allows cities to bring an action to protect an owner's exclusive possession of his property.
Neither Williams nor Dugas hired an attorney or showed up in court to defend himself, according to Russo.
"Oakland has a proud tradition of nonviolent protest and dissent," Russo said Wednesday. "Those who use protests as nothing more than a cover to trash our town or loot homegrown businesses should consider carefully the court's ruling. Oakland will not tolerate this disrespect to our tradition."
A second lawsuit is in progress against two other people arrested on suspicion of spray-painting public property during the chaos, the City Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
In all, about 80 people were arrested during the violence that followed the verdict that night.
THey got rid of that commie Mayor Ron Dellums so this may be the first sign that commietown is changing. I hope.
They replaced him with Jean Quan, who is far more radical then Red Dellums. FWIW, she was a vocal supporter of teaching ebonics in public schools.
In a bit of irony, the Oakland Tribune did just about everything it could to encourage a riot. I’d like to see them sued as well.
Good luck getting the money from these sh!tbags; the sad fact of the matter is that the combined value of both of their lives is probably less than the value of a store window.
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