Charges Against Father in Melee Case Dismissed

Based on a recommendation by prosecutors, an Orange County judge Tuesday dismissed criminal charges against a Stanton man charged with assault and battery in connection with a highly publicized brawl that left a Garden Grove teen-ager disfigured.

Municipal Judge Daniel J. Didier dismissed the charges against Earl Wimberly, 42, who was charged with striking Ralph Jones, 17, with a baseball bat during a melee involving more than a dozen people.

It was during that Aug. 6 brawl that 15-year-old Amber Jefferson was cut by a shard of glass in an incident that her parents said was racially motivated.

Jones was with Amber and several other teen-agers in the parking lot of a Stanton apartment complex the night she was injured after what prosecutors say was an argument between two girls over a boy that escalated into violence.

But on Tuesday, Jones didn’t show up in court. He and his cousin, Louilla Jones, have reportedly been on the run since authorities learned Louilla had been impersonating a man.

“Ralph Jones didn’t see fit to come to court, so there’s no case,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper said, explaining her decision to ask for a dismissal. “We have been looking for him diligently for about a month now.”

Louilla Jones, who stunned authorities last December when it was learned that she was really a woman who had been impersonating a man, also failed to appear in court Tuesday, and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest. She had been scheduled to stand trial for malicious mischief, fighting in public and assault with a deadly weapon.

Earl Wimberly was one of three people charged in the case that became a cause celebre for civil rights activists when Amber, the daughter of a black father and white mother, said that she had been attacked because of her race. But prosecutors argued that the brawl had nothing to do with race and was merely the result of an argument between one of Amber’s white girlfriends and another white girl over a boy. Wimberly has maintained that he armed himself with a bat to defend his 18-year-old son, Kurt, whom he alleges was being assaulted by Amber’s friends. Earl Wimberly could not be reached Tuesday. However, his attorney described the case against his client as “improperly filed from the get-go.”

“It was Amber Jefferson’s friends who instigated this whole incident that ended with her injury,” said Wimberly’s attorney, Gregory Jones. “The charge was that he (Wimberly) used a bat, but the evidence clearly indicated that he was coming to the defense of his son.”

Kurt Wimberly, who faces the most serious charges in the case, is scheduled to stand trial Monday on charges of felony mayhem. Prosecutors maintain that he threw a piece of glass that struck Amber in the face. Harper, who is also prosecuting the charges against Kurt Wimberly, said Tuesday’s dismissal was not expected to affect that case.

The Jefferson family reacted angrily to reports that Wimberly had been cleared of the charges.

“I was real upset, and when my mom told me I was crying,” Amber said. “After all that had happened, for them to just drop the charges against him like that.”

Her mother, Cody Donnelly, called the outcome a “travesty of justice.”

“We’re devastated, and there’s no way in the world I’m going to let this go,” Donnelly said. “If we have to go on every nationwide television show we’re going to keep this alive.”

The Jeffersons were also angry that the Joneses did not show up to testify at Wimberly’s trial.

“Lewis (Louilla) and Ralph swore that they would stick by me through thick and thin,” Amber said.

The Jeffersons have credited 19-year-old Louilla Jones with saving the teen-ager’s life the night of the attack. In December, authorities arrested Jones on suspicion of burglary and discovered that he was really a woman named Louilla.