O.C. Not Charging Rights Activist

The Orange County district attorney’s office has declined to file charges against an immigrant-rights activist arrested last month for allegedly disrupting a Costa Mesa City Council meeting, the man learned Friday.

Coyotl Tezcalipoca, 24, appeared at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach for a court hearing only to find that authorities had decided not to pursue charges of assaulting and resisting an arresting police officer.

“We decided not to file in the interests of justice,” said spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder of the district attorney’s office, declining to elaborate.

But Tezcalipoca’s problems stemming from the Jan. 3 incident may not be over.

Costa Mesa City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow said her office next week would likely review possible misdemeanor charges of disrupting a municipal public assembly.

Yet, the activist was optimistic. “I think justice is on my side,” said Tezcalipoca, a student at Orange Coast College. “We are going to keep fighting for what we initially started fighting for.”

Tezcalipoca, whose legal name is Benito Acosta, was ejected from the meeting after exhorting a small crowd to resist police becoming involved in enforcing federal immigration law.

He said he was choked, kicked and struck by police as he was removed from the meeting at the insistence of Mayor Allan R. Mansoor, an advocate for the ordinance.

The council voted 3 to 2 on Dec. 7 to authorize police to work with federal officials in determining the immigration status of people arrested in the city on suspicion of felony crimes.

Proponents say the ordinance aids crime prevention. However, immigrant-rights activists say it increases racial profiling and creates distrust and fear.

Activists have urged city businesses to fight the ordinance and appealed to residents to stop cooperating with law enforcement in crime investigations.