Norse Hearing Postponed from Friday June 16th to early August TBA

This update is for those following my criminal case.

Mayor Mike Rotkin and District Attorney Bob Lee have charged me with “disrupting a city council meeting” and “obstructing an officer” back in June of 2005. The case can be examined at the Municipal/Superior Court clerk's office under the name "Robert Norris Kahn" (my family name).

The case has been repeatedly postponed, most recently because of apparent SCPD, D.A., or judicial lack of compliance with a “Pitchess Hearing” requirement.

The “Pitchess Hearing” is a judicial examination behind closed doors of all formal complaints against a police officer for the last five years on a particular issue (in Clark’s case “excessive force” and “lying by statement or omission”). Judge Burdick is being asked to look again at Clark’s file since some new complaints have “appeared” that apparently weren’t there or were overlooked before.

Originally scheduled for Friday morning June 16th (not June 11th as mistakenly reported), the hearing has been postponed until August because D.A. Archie Webber, the go-getter in charge of the case, will be out of town.

The guy who filed the complaints about Clark or knows about then is a former D.A. investigator, is currently in Europe, who won't be back til mid-summer.

Apparently SCPD Police chief Skerry himself has sustained at least one complaint against Clark for misuse of information. A second complaint against him for lying is also at issue (though apparently not sustained). Whether sustained or not, we're entitled to have access to the names and phone numbers of who filed the complaints, so we can use them as witnesses to impeach Clark.

I shall let folks know through indymedia the exact time and date of that August hearing and of my trial date, now scheduled for September 11th (!). Because of this postponement, the trial itself may also be postponed.

I am also suing former Mayors Krohn, Fitzmaurice, and Kennedy in federal court for a continuing pattern of harassment at City Council. This federal case has been postponed as well (since the criminal case affects it).

David Beauvais will discuss the issue tonight on Free Radio Santa Cruz (7 PM Thursday June 15th at http://www.freakradio.org and/or 101.1 FM).

The show will be archived at http://www.huffsantacruz.org .

More history of the case: http://indybay.org/newsitems/2006/04/18/18160331.php