A Poor Defense of FBI

“Sometimes the best defense is a good offense,” FBI Agent Marene Allison asserted recently in testimony about her confrontation with UC San Diego student Kristen Crabtree. That philosophy, which led Allison to initiate a scuffle with Crabtree that ended in the agent being bitten on the finger, also seems to have been embraced by the U.S. attorney’s office.

In throwing out the charge against Crabtree of assaulting a federal officer last month, Chief U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson Jr. chided Allison for her actions and the prosecutor’s office for even bringing the case. But U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez’s office apparently does not like being on the defensive, so it has moved back onto the offensive.

Last week, it was announced that federal prosecutors intend to appeal Thompson’s ruling and seek to have the indictment reinstated. It is an appalling decision, raising the question of whether Nunez is really interested in justice in the case or in sticking up for a fellow member of the federal law enforcement community.

The confrontation between the two women occurred on the UCSD campus in May while Allison was representing the FBI at a university job fair. Crabtree was taking pictures of a demonstration protesting the presence of military and government recruiters for a leftist student newspaper. According to both, when Crabtree tried to photograph Allison, the agent grabbed at her camera. In response, Crabtree bit Allison on the finger.

In a hearing the day before Crabtree’s trial was to begin, Allison testified that she knew the student was within her rights to photograph her in a public place, but she nonetheless tried to stop her. Then she shared with the judge her strategy about the best defense, and Thompson threw the case out of court. He even suggested that it might have been the FBI agent who was guilty of assault. “It was clearly wrong (for Crabtree) to bite her,” Thompson said. “But the question is: Who provoked what?”

The case should have ended right there. The facts are clear and essentially not in dispute: Agent Allison had no authority to prevent Crabtree from taking her picture and was wrong to physically confront her.

Nunez should not follow through with an appeal. To do so would only give the appearance of persecuting Crabtree and would further discredit his office and the FBI.