San Diego

The trial of Brian Barlow, a homosexual man accused of biting two San Diego police officers during a 1986 gay pride parade, began Tuesday with attorneys painting different pictures of the mood on the day the assault allegedly occurred.

Barlow faces two counts of battery and one count of resisting arrest stemming from an altercation along the Hillcrest parade route. He is accused of biting former reserve officer George R. Ground on the shoulder and officer Ray Shay on the finger.

In his opening statement, defense attorney C. Logan McKechnie said parade participants were confronted with derogatory remarks from both protesters and police. But he said Barlow dealt with the police in a style reminiscent of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. when he was put in a restraint hold designed to subdue people with pain.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg McClain presented opening statements that argued the Police Department took “special protections” to separate the marchers and the protesters so that confrontations would be avoided.

McClain said Barlow was so “obnoxious” after his arrest that paramedics refused to transport him to a hospital so that he could be examined after being involved in the fight.

Barlow was at the center of a two-year legal debate concerning the legality of testing his blood for the AIDS virus. The California Supreme Court in May upheld a lower court decision prohibiting the disclosure of test results without the consent of the person tested.