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| LIFE LEGAL DEFENSE FOUNDATION | |||||
| P.O. Box 2105, Napa, California 94558 — 707.224.6675 | |||||
| NEWS RELEASE | May 11, 2009 | ||||
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JURY DECLARES SURVIVORS’ INNOCENT—
VIDEO REVEALS POLICE BRUTALITY AND COVER UP
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA: The Life Legal Defense Foundation is pleased to announce that justice prevailed late Friday afternoon, May 8th, with a NOT GUILTY verdict in the case of PEOPLE v. CONRAD AND CONRAD (MWV707249). Survivors’ Campus Life Tour team members, Jason and James Conrad, were being tried as a result of arrests that took place during a CLT outreach at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga in November 2007. (Read the full account of the arrests of Joey Cox, Jason Conrad, and James Conrad on page 5 of the Winter 2007 issue of Survivors Action News at http://survivors.la/news/san24.pdf.) The team members were violently assaulted by the Chaffey College police force, unlawfully arrested and held in jail for three days.
Joey Cox was charged with causing a campus disruption and unlawfully recording a confidential conversation. All charges against Joey were dismissed on the eve of trial after the court of appeal ruled that the police unlawfully arrested Cox and illegally seized his tape recorder. Jason and James Conrad were charged with disturbing the peace and obstructing a police officer. In spite of the outrageous actions on the part of campus police and the clear evidence that the allegations were meritless, the district attorney refused to drop their charges and the case was brought to trial.
“Before the jury was even selected we knew we were in for an uphill battle,” Allison Aranda, staff attorney for Life Legal Defense Foundation commented. Judge Mary Fuller prohibited any mention of Joey’s unlawful arrest and threatened to exclude videotape that proved the Conrads’ innocence. Ms. Aranda explained, “Our hands were tied and the realization that we would only be able to tell part of the story to the jury sunk in. We were disappointed, but not defeated.”
The judge ultimately allowed the video to be played without sound. But, that was enough for the jury to see the truth. The video showed the Conrads peacefully complying with all of the officer’s orders and revealed the disturbing actions of the police as they slammed James Conrad on a table and tried to cover the only window to the outside so the others could not witness the brutality.
The jury deliberated for less than a day and returned the only just verdicts the evidence demanded—NOT GUILTY, NOT GUILTY, NOT GUILTY, NOT GUILTY. No amount of lies, deceit, and cover up can change the truth. And in this case, truth won out!
Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, Dana Cody, commented on the verdict stating, “The jurors are to be commended for following the law and denouncing the police misconduct. LLDF will seek damages in a civil suit against the officers for the violations of both the Conrads’ and Mr. Cox’s civil rights.”
Life Legal Defense Foundation, the organization defending the Survivors in this litigation, is a non-profit legal organization committed to the sanctity of human life. For more information call Allison K. Aranda at 951-541-9327.
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