Riverside Superior Judge Daniel Ottolia dismissed a case brought by two Black Lives Matters activists who were arrested after protesting in front of San Bernardino Superior Court on July 31, 2020.
Ottolia’s April 5 ruling found that the court order prohibiting protests around the courthouse was content neutral and a valid exercise of the authority of the presiding judge.
The court and the plaintiff’s attorney have not yet responded to our requests for comment.
Kelly Lorenz and Alykhan Popat were protesting against the prosecution of Lawrence Bender, a Black man shot by a Rialto police officer, according to their complaint.
The court has in place a general order that prohibits picketing and demonstrating around their courthouses.
Both plaintiffs were arrested for violating the general order, and later were cited with interference with a public business, they claim. Neither should have been arrested on either charge, because they did not interfere with the courthouse, they claim.
“I did not block any entrances. I did not threaten any person entering or exiting the courthouse. I peacefully made my concerns known,” Lorenz and Popat wrote in copied statements attached to the complaint.
They have not been prosecuted, their suit says.
Lornez and Popat claimed that the general order was not content neutral, because the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse has a 15-foot-tall statue of a shot police officer, titled “Officer Down.”
“While the message that honors fallen officers is an important one, the Superior Court (or the San Bernardino Sheriff with consent of the Court) chooses not to allow persons to speak out on its property against unjustified law enforcement shootings of unarmed African Americans,” their complaint says.
The complaint claims the court allows some people to protest on its court grounds, and disallows others.
They brought causes for declaratory relief as to the order’s lawfulness and injunctive relief that would cause the court to withdraw its general order.
The case was filed in San Bernardino Superior Court, reassigned to federal court and then assigned to Riverside Superior Court.
Robert Naeve, Cary Sullivan and Nathaniel Garrett of Jones Day represented the court.
Peter Schlueter of San Bernardino’s Schlueter Law Firm represented Lorenz and Popat.
Case No. CIVSB2211434
Read the third amended complaint here.
Read Ottalia’s ruling here.
