SHARING OF BAD NEWS- Verdict today in Orange County Hello friends, as some of may already know we lost the jury trial in the Santa Ana federal court involving the shooting death of Manuel Diaz. I often share the victories on facebook and I try to avoid discussing a loss. However, I feel compelled to share the very tragic result, even though I am crying as I am writing this post. Manuel Diaz was shot by Anaheim police officer NICK BENNALLACK on July 21, 2012. It was undisputed that he was unarmed when he was shot in the buttocks and then in the back of his head. It was also undisputed that he did not commit a crime at any time. All he did was run away when he saw an officer approaching him. So why did we lose? The main reason we lost was because after Manuel died the Anaheim police department looked at his cell phone and found pictures of Manuel posing with a large gun and doing gang signs. With that information the defense attorneys portrayed the area of the shooting as an extremely dangerous area where it is like a war zone. They even brought up a previous killing of a 12 year old kid there. The judge not only allowed the jury to look at the pictures of Manuel posing with a gun, he also allowed the jury to listen to ridiculous inflammatory evidence regarding investigations of the Anna Street, East Side Anaheim gang, and the alleged multiple crimes the gang commits. The officer made up a theory that he thought Manuel had a gun, and that he thought Manuel must have thrown the gun when he shot Manuel, and that people from the gang must have picked it up and took it. Needless to say, the jury ate up all the hyperbolic bullshit. To make matters worse the judge did not allow us to mention that BENNALLACK had shot another man 6 months earlier and that he has a second job as a fighter and calls himself BUCK SHOT BENNALLACK. The judge would not even allow the lawyers or anyone in the case to call the killing a murder. WTF, because according to the judge such evidence would be prejudicial. I am torn and wounded. It hurts my soul to know that BENNALLACK shot and killed Manuel in cold blood and got away with it. In the old cowboy days he would have been called a “yellowbelly killer” for shooting someone in the back and he would have been hanged. Here, in this case they were not satisfied with killing him. The defense attorneys with ratification from the judge dehumanized Manuel and killed him a second time by making him out to be a person less worthy than others by portraying him as an evil meth using armed gang member. The verdict was not only against Manuel’s mom, Genevieve Huizar, but it was also a verdict against the Latino community in Orange County. Truly one of my worst moments in my life to witness Genevieve and the community activists react to this verdict. So what do we do now? First of all, I am not a quitter and I refuse to lose. We intend to file a motion for new trial. If that is not granted we will file an appeal. I will also join in future protests regarding this case and others. We can not sit by and allow this to continue happening. We must fight back. Ironically, today I filed the lawsuit in another Anaheim shooting. The shooting death of Martin Angel Hernandez. This young man was shot in the head on by Anaheim officer Dan Hurtado on March 7, 2012. Hurtado shot Martin in the head with a military assault rifle. I will keep you posted on what happens in that case. As a former gang member that was given the opportunity by God to turn my life around I have dedicated my life to fighting these types of cases . I am wounded but I am inspired to continue the fight for my people that I love deeply. NO JUSTICE NO PEACE - STOP THE KILLER POLICE
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 11:32:04 +0000
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