Case struck down third time

Costa Mesa city attorneys are running out of options to prosecute a Latino activist who they say disrupted a 2006 City Council meeting before being escorted out of the council chambers and arrested, officials said Friday.

City prosecutors are mulling over their options after a three-judge panel from Orange County Superior Court’s Appellate Division upheld a previous judge’s ruling for a second time this week to throw out the case against Benito Acosta, an activist who on Jan. 3, 2006, protested legislation urging city police to work with federal authorities on enforcing immigration laws.

The three-judge panel of Greg Prickett, Mary Schulte and Robert Moss, essentially submitted the same opinion as they did in September, when they first reviewed Judge Kelly MacEachern’s decision to throw out the city’s case against Acosta and upheld it. City prosecutors are trying to charge Acosta, who goes by the name Coyotl Tezcatlipoca, with various misdemeanors related to disturbing the 2006 City Council meeting and resisting arrest after he was thrown out.

Soon after the incident, Acosta sued the city in federal court with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Though the city’s criminal case has been shot down three times, it’s not three strikes and you’re out, said prosecutor Krista Jee from the Jones & Mayer law firm.

Attorneys are planning to submit requests to the county’s appellate court and directly to the state court of appeals to have their case heard at the state appeals court level, essentially their last hope to have the case heard.

MacEachern threw out Costa Mesa’s case on a legal technicality, the Jones & Mayer attorney who filed charges against Acosta was not sworn in as a city prosecutor.

Jee said if the state court of appeals does not hear the case, city officials will have to explore their remaining options, though she did not say what they would be.

Mayor Eric Bever said as long as the Jones & Mayer firm continues to take on the case pro bono, he’ll continue to support it.

“If you walk away from it I think you’re giving up your point,” Bever said. “As long as the attorneys’ firm is willing to continue pursuing it, it’s their responsibility.”

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].