Jury Begins Talks in Gay Marcher’s Case : Accused of Biting Officers During Tussle With Fundamentalists

Jury deliberations began Monday in the trial of a marcher in the 1986 Gay Pride Parade, accused of biting two police officers during a skirmish with protesting fundamentalists.

The San Diego Superior Court jury discussed the case of Brian Barlow, 41, of Long Beach for two hours and then returned and asked for an explanation of the definition of battery .

Municipal Judge Frederic L. Link, sitting temporarily on the Superior Court bench, gave jurors instruction on the term, then sent them home for the evening. Deliberations will resume this morning.

The defense called a single witness, a spectator at the Hillcrest parade, who said she did not see Barlow hit a fundamentalist protester or squirt the protester with water. Barlow did not testify.

The prosecutor, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg McClain, said Barlow was uncooperative with police from his first encounter with them, and he denied that the officers used excessive force.

“If anyone was using force, it was Mr. Barlow,” said McClain, who described the defendant as “an angry and aggressive individual.”

“There’s no question the officers were bitten,” he said.

McClain said that because Barlow is gay, AIDS antibody and hepatitis tests were done on the police officers, Ray Shay and George Ground. Both tested negative.

Barlow’s attorney, C. Logan McKechnie, seized on McClain’s mention of AIDS by saying that bites cannot transmit the virus and that the prosecutor was trying to inflame the jury.

McKechnie said the prosecution wanted to send a message that gays should not bite cops, because the officers might get AIDS.

He said the impression given of Barlow during the June 7, 1986, incident was that of “a mad dog,” and noted that the prosecution failed to find the protester whom other officers said was struck by Barlow and had water squirted on her.

The defense lawyer also said that every officer who testified told a different version of what happened.

“It’s a case of contradictions from the beginning,” McKechnie said.

In rebuttal, McClain acknowledged some differences in the stories of the officers, but said he would be more concerned if all of the officers’ accounts matched perfectly. He denied there was a message to be sent to the public.

Barlow remains free on $7,500 bail.