SIMI VALLEY : Felony Trial Ruled Out in Rally Case
A Ventura County judge on Thursday decided that there was insufficient evidence to warrant a felony assault trial for a Santa Monica man accused of throwing a soda can during a white supremacist rally in Simi Valley last month.
Instead, Superior Court Judge Robert C. Bradley, acting as a Municipal Court magistrate, decided that Steve Moss, 23, should stand trial on a misdemeanor assault charge. Moss also can be tried on a charge of failing to disperse, Bradley ruled.
The dismissal of the felony charge means the maximum possible sentence that Moss could receive if convicted is one year in the county jail. A felony conviction could have resulted in a maximum term of four years in prison.
Bradley is scheduled for trial in Municipal Court on Aug. 20.
Moss’s case was the only felony charge still pending after six counterdemonstrators were arrested at the white supremacist rally on June 6. The others have been dismissed or reduced to misdemeanors.
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