Group claims bias by San Joaquin D.A. office
STOCKTON — A motion was filed on Tuesday at the San Joaquin County Superior Court to remove the entire District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting defendants arrested during protests that followed a Stockton City Council meeting in March.
The motion, filed by Bay Area attorney Yolanda Huang and Public Defender Jocelyn Weisbrich on behalf of six defendants connected to the Black Lives Matter movement, argues that the district attorney’s office is too racially biased to prosecute the cases.
The demonstrators were arrested on various charges while protesting officer-involved shootings. Cases for both adult and juvenile defendants were being heard on Tuesday.
The accusations of racism stem from a series of photos leaked by a whistleblower in 2016. The photos appear to depict a controversial skit during the D.A.’s office Halloween party, in which a deputy district attorney, dressed as Snow White, snorted a white powder in an imitation of cocaine use. While this happened, the photos show, other attendees looked on while dressed as the Seven Dwarfs in black and white prison stripes, bearing signs that read “Dwarf Lives Matter.”
Black Lives Matter lawyers are now calling for an independent investigation by the Attorney General.
Huang said of the district attorney’s office: “They represent the people of California, and we hold them to a higher standard of behavior.”
Huang is filing the motion to recuse the district attorney’s office from prosecuting the arrested protesters, in large part, because she and those she represents feel strongly that the behavior of the employees at the Halloween party constitute a violation of that higher standard, and that said behavior is indicative of a larger problem of institutional racial bias that would prevent the office from conducting themselves with the objectivity required by their position.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau gave a statement regarding the motion.
Himelblau stated that the motion had not yet been filed, and that he cannot yet respond to it. He later explained that the motion must be served to the Attorney General’s office as well as the district attorney, and that the district attorney’s office cannot respond to it until the Attorney General has issued a response.
Despite this, Himelblau did comment on the accusations of racial bias on the part of the district attorney’s office:
“We deny these allegations ... as merely claims and a conclusion.”
Himelblau denied that the photographs from the Halloween party prove that the district attorney’s office is guilty of widespread racism, although he could “understand why people could be offended.”
He explained that every employee of the district attorney’s office was required to attend what he called, “diversity training, for lack of a better term,” and that an apology has been issued. Himelblau also expressed that he is “completely confident” that the motion will be dismissed, citing a lack of hard evidence proving the office’s racial bias, denying that the “Dwarf Lives Matter” signs from the leaked photographs were connected to the Black Lives Matter protesters arrested earlier this year.