STOCKTON, Calif. -- A Stockton Black Lives Matter protester, arrested last year for battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, and obstructing a sidewalk, reached a plea deal with the San Joaquin County District Attorney's office on Monday.
The DA's office said Lareesha Brown pleaded guilty to one count of "willfully/resisting/obstructing/delaying a peace officer, as a result of her conduct in kicking and/or striking peace officers and failing to obey instructions while said officers were lawfully performing their duties as peace officers."
In exchange, Brown agreed to 48 hours of community service and participate in a "restorative justice" conference/round table with members of the Stockton Police Department.
"We were asking for a dismissal all along, but what motivated us to take this, and not go to trial, is the fact we get to have a sit down with the police and with the District Attorney's Office, where we get to exchange and tell them how we feel, and they listen. Then, they get to tell us how they feel and we listen. And, I think that's a really constructive way to proceed," said Brown's attorney Yolanda Huang, who is an attorney from Oakland.
On March 7, 2017, Brown was arrested, along with several others, following a Black Lives Matter protest at a Stockton Council meeting. The District Attorney filed misdemeanor charges against six people. Some of the cases are still pending.
"I feel like there's lots of actions that the police and the system all-in-all is making for the community and the low property is causing a lot of chaotic shootings, a lot of chaotic killings," said Lareesha Brown.
During the court proceedings, Brown's attorney asked the court for a "disqualification of the entire San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office because of its institutionalized racism and bias against Black Lives Matter."
As an example to back-up her claim, Huang pointed to a Halloween skit from 2016, first reported by ABC10, in which one employee, dressed as Snow White, pretends to snort a white substance.
Other employees are dressed as Snow White's dwarves, but, in black-and-white prison stripes. One employee held a sign saying "Dwarves Lives Matter," poking fun at Black Lives Matter protestors.
San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar acknowledged the skit and apologized to the community.
On Monday, the district attorney's office issued a statement saying, "The allegation of 'systemic racism' in the District Attorney's by Brown's attorney has been vigorously denied. After a review by two superior court judges and the attorney general's office, none of the bias alleged by Brown's attorney has been substantiated. The district attorney's office denies Ms. Haung's baseless allegations."
The district attorney added "the five motions Brown's attorney has filed regarding these allegations have been denied by three different superior court judges."
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