Activists respond to dismissal of gang charges in BLM protest
Activists and advocates took to social media to briefly celebrate after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office dismissed a case with gang-related charges stemming from an October protest.
The dismissal was announced by the County Attorney’s Office late Friday night after months of scrutiny and public outcry. Fifteen protesters had been indicted by a grand jury on gang-related and other charges after 18 people, including three teens, were arrested at an October protest against police brutality in downtown Phoenix.
After the arrests, Phoenix police said protesters marched in the road, moved barricades, resisted arrest and threw smoke bombs at officers at the Oct. 17 protest. Those 15 protesters were facing charges like conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, felonious rioting, unlawful assembly and assisting a criminal street gang. If any of the defendants had been found guilty of the class three felony of assisting a gang, at least five years in prison would have been added to sentencing for other charges.
After the County Attorney’s Office recommended the gang-related charges, the grand jury returned with an indictment. The gang charges raised the level of prosecution faced by protesters in Phoenix since protests broke out across the nation since George Floyd’s 2020 death in Minneapolis.
It was also the first time a prosecutor filed gang-related charges in connection to 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Phoenix.
While protesters charged in the case were relieved by the dismissal, many said it’s only the first step in dropping all charges in protest-related cases in Maricopa County. Other activists and protesters such as Bruce Franks Jr., a former Missouri state representative, are still facing charges related to other 2020 protests.
In a statement, the County Attorney’s Office said it continues to evaluate incoming evidence in the case.
“The office is re-evaluating the evidence that has been and continues to be submitted for review,” the statement reads. “MCAO remains committed to holding those who committed criminal acts in this event responsible.”
Activists say all 2020 protest charges should be dropped
Marysa Leyva, 25, was one of the protesters arrested Oct. 17. At first, she said she was happy to learn about the dismissal, but the excitement has worn down because other protesters are still facing charges in Maricopa County.
“I feel very vindicated, but at the same time now it’s like, OK, so we’ve known this all along, you guys are admitting that you’re wrong here. Now what? I want to see some accountability,” Leyva said.
Leyva said she and other protesters have faced challenges in their personal lives since the arrests and are still waiting for police to return their personal possessions like phones and credit cards.
Now, Leyva said she and other protesters, along with activist groups in Phoenix, will continue to advocate for protesters and demand for all charges to be dropped in their cases.
“It’s now clear to everybody how badly mishandled this has been by the Chief (Jeri Williams), by Phoenix police and by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office,” Leyva said.
Riley Behrens, 23, said he was also excited about the dismissed case but knows the Oct. 17 event isn’t the only protest that resulted in arrests and charges.
“There’s still other cases we can focus on and try to get those dropped, too,” Behrens said. “If this is the behavior that they showed for our arrest, then there’s no doubt there’s other videos, other comments and other scenarios like that for the other arrests.”
Advocates say news report, public pressure sparked dismissal
News of the dismissal came after months of criticism from activists and advocates, who said the charges were too harsh and could prohibit people from exercising their rights in the future.
Dismissing the case “was the best thing for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to do,” said Jocquese Blackwell, an attorney listed in court documents as representing Leyva.
“This has nothing to do with a gangrelated offense, nothing whatsoever. They basically made it up in front of the grand jury,” said Blackwell, who also represented the family of Dion Johnson, who was fatally shot by an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper in May.
In the past week, public outcry and support for the Black Lives Matter protesters in Phoenix also garnered national attention after ABC15 published an investigation about the gang-related charges, other protest cases in Phoenix and a challenge coin that police use to commemorate the use of force against protesters.
“The only reason they’re doing anything about it now is because the public is noticing,” said Leyva.
Kenneth Countryman, an attorney representing Suvarna Ratnam, said Ratnam is “absolutely innocent” and echoed sentiments that public outcry led to the county attorney’s office reassessing charges.
“The charges were unjustified,” Countryman said. “This was a political prosecution.”
Countryman said the County Attorney’s Office should realize protesters were expressing their First Amendment rights and were not engaging in violence.
Civil rights group demands cases be dismissed with prejudice
In a statement online, civil rights group Mass Liberation Arizona said the attorney’s office dismissing the cases is the “right thing to do,” but that the motion is “useless” unless the charges are dismissed with prejudice, which means the case cannot be reopened.
“Police and prosecutors worked in concert to destroy the lives of people who were demanding racial justice by lying and manipulating judges, juries, and the public,” the group said in a statement.
Mass Liberation Arizona also demanded charges in all remaining protest cases be dropped, officers who lied under oath be held accountable and placed on the Brady list and all prosecutors involved in the cases be fired.