Brown Goes From Crime Observer to Center Stage

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown has stumbled into an unlikely role in his city’s crime drama after a woman charged that he grabbed her cellphone and crushed it as she shot video of him outside a nightclub.

The Alameda County district attorney’s office is investigating the alleged incident, which occurred early Sunday and was reported to police by the woman, 26-year-old Ayesha Wilson of Manteca, near Stockton.

Latrenia Deconge, who was with Wilson, said she witnessed the confrontation with the mayor. “You can actually see his hand cover the phone” on the video, she said. “He squeezed it so hard that it cracked.”

Deconge, who is African American like Wilson, said the mayor was rude and made comments they interpreted as racist.

Brown, who is facing Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo for the Democratic nomination for attorney general, denied the allegations.

Oakland’s recent surge in violent crime and shortage of police officers have become central issues in the attorney general’s contest over the last week. Becoming a crime suspect, however fleetingly, is bad timing at best.

After the allegations were reported Wednesday in Bay Area newspapers, Brown spent the day evading TV cameras.

Gil Duran, Brown’s spokesman, said the mayor had been trying to mediate a dispute between the women and the nightclub’s bodyguards. “He was just trying to help them and calm everything down,” he said. “In the middle of trying to be a good Samaritan ... all of a sudden we’ve got a complaint.”

Duran suggested that the women, who say they plan to file a civil lawsuit against the mayor and the owner of the club, have ulterior motives.

“I think this is one those finger-in-the-chili things,” he said, referring to the severed digit planted in a bowl of Wendy’s chili by a scammer seeking a payoff.

Regardless of whether Brown manhandled Wilson’s phone, it was his hands-on approach that placed him at the scene. He has always been a roll-up-the-sleeves mayor, chatting to felons on street corners at night and agitating to shut down crack houses in the high-crime neighborhood where he lives.

With crime -- and the city’s failure to control it -- leading the concerns of Oakland residents, Brown on Saturday attended police roll calls, where officers complained that their time is wasted by constant calls to break up nightclub fights, Duran said.

Brown decided to ride along to see for himself. “They said there’s trouble. And he found it: There’s trouble,” Duran said.

Visits to the first two clubs were uneventful. At the third, called @17th, they came upon a melee as security guards were evicting a woman from the bar.

Duran said the mayor was concerned for the woman and began asking questions.

Deconge, a 26-year-old from the Bay Area city of Newark, said two big guards dragged her intoxicated younger sister, 22-year-old Rochelle Evans, out of the club. Deconge was angered, and eventually she and Wilson also ended up outside, where three other women picked a fight with them, she said. Deconge said she was hit in the eye with a high-heeled shoe and was bleeding profusely.

At that point, Deconge said, Wilson turned to the mayor to ask for help, pointing out that no one was seeking medical aid for Deconge.

“He said, ‘This is what you people get when you come to places like this,’ ” Deconge said. “Then he turned to the owner and said, ‘You should get more of an upscale crowd.’ ”

Wilson opened her phone and began recording the mayor with it, Deconge said, and he grabbed it and squeezed.

McDowell Limbrick, owner of Brick Security, one of two companies that guards the club, said he witnessed the women’s interaction with the mayor and questioned their account. “The young ladies were so busy screaming at him and pointing their fingers in his face,” he said. “I didn’t hear him say anything to anyone or see him lift his hands from his sides.”

Wilson and Deconge made their report to police Sunday. A spokesman declined to confirm the mayor’s involvement but said the matter was referred to the district attorney’s office.

Deconge said she was contacted by a district attorney’s investigator and will meet with him today. “They want to run some tests on the phone,” she said.

As for Brown, he will continue accompanying police on patrols, Duran said, “and he’s not going to be saying anything to anybody.”