Bits of Convention Business Wrapped Up

The saga of the largest mass arrest during the Democratic National Convention came to an end Friday as the Los Angeles city attorney’s office agreed to drop all charges against 70 bicycle riders taken into custody during a pro-cycling demonstration.

Many of the cyclists were held for at least 36 hours after their arrests last month on charges that started with driving recklessly but were later reduced to blocking a public way.

Friday, the charges against 56 of the cyclists were dismissed “in the interest of justice,” Assistant City Atty. Howard Gluck told Judge William P. Ryan. The remaining 14 adult cases are scheduled to be dismissed next week; charges against one juvenile already had been dropped.

Gluck also told the judge that some of the cyclists had agreed to contribute either money, bicycles or their own labor to a nonprofit organization that helps low-income children obtain bicycles and learn how to ride them safely.

The resolution of the cases was the product of protracted negotiations involving a practical city attorney, environmental activists, a Bay Area lawyer who specializes in representing demonstrators and some hard-nosed public defenders.

Michael Judge, the county’s chief public defender, had assigned veteran attorneys who normally handle felonies--including death penalty cases--to represent the cyclists because he and his colleagues were angered by the nature of the arrests and reports that female cyclists had each been subjected to at least two strip searches in the County Jail.

The public defenders had told Gluck that they were prepared to take the cases to trial, even after he offered to reduce the charges from misdemeanors to infractions, which meant that the cases would be moved to traffic court, where there are no juries and normally no lawyers.

“We took this seriously,” said Deputy Public Defender Geralyn Busnardo, who represented four cyclists. “It’s a progressive movement, and they’re innocent.”

No Point in Pursuing

For his part, Gluck said he had weighed the situation and concluded that there was no point in pushing the cases any further, given the nature of the charges, the fact that the cyclists had already spent time in jail and that their bikes were held for nearly two weeks.

“There are wife beaters, child abusers and drunk drivers who need to be prosecuted,” the assistant city attorney said. “I wasn’t going to tie up the courts on these cases after a penalty already had been exacted.”

Gluck said he chose to require the contributions to the bicycle program, after consulting a number of people, because it seemed consistent with the goals of the cyclists.

The bicycle protest during the convention was aimed at promoting a more bike-friendly atmosphere in Los Angeles in an effort to reduce pollution in the nation’s smoggiest city.

Katya Komisaruk, a lawyer with the Midnight Special Legal Collective who represented a number of the cyclists, presented a $1,000 check Friday to Tana Ball, director of YES, the inner city bicycle organization.

Komisaruk also said that at least three bicycles would be donated to the organization and that some of the protesters would help repair bikes.

On Friday afternoon, the riders reclaimed their bicycles from a police storage facility, where they had been held since the Aug. 15 arrests.

All is not finished, however. Lawyers for a healthy chunk of the cyclists asked Judge Ryan to issue a finding that the riders were factually innocent. Gluck balked and Ryan told the public defenders that they would have to make a formal motion later. Some cyclists, expressing outrage at their treatment, also indicated that they are considering wrongful-arrest suits against the city.

“I’m making a donation to YES, but I’m matching it with a donation to the ACLU Prison Reform Project,” said Susanne Blossom, a third-year law student at UCLA who cycles to school.

A police report on the cyclists’ arrests states they were zigzagging through traffic, showing a disregard for safety, frightening pedestrians and nearly causing accidents.

The cyclists uniformly said that those allegations were untrue and that they had been riding safely. They said they were chaperoned by officers throughout the ride--including being escorted through red lights.

The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition also issued a formal statement, saying the cyclists had been injured during their arrests by officers using unnecessary force and that some of the people arrested had been denied prescription medication while in jail.

“There was no cause for these arrests,” said Michelle LaValley, 19, of San Diego, who wore a T-shirt proclaiming on the front, “Riding a Bike Is Not a Crime.”

“We were detained strategically to prevent us from exercising our 1st Amendment rights,” she said.

Several of those arrested said they would increase their efforts to get the city to implement a Bicycle Master Plan that was approved in 1996 “but never adequately funded or implemented,” according to Ron Milam of the Bicycle Coalition.