Malicious prosecution trial over Phoenix attorney's arrest at protest kicks off

PHOENIX (CN) — Attorney and local Black Lives Matter organizer Jamaar Williams began a weeklong trial Tuesday against a Phoenix police officer he says made false statements to charge him with aggravated assault and resisting arrest.

In his opening statement, Williams’ attorney Christopher Madeksho said the case will come down to “one simple question.”

“Did Officer Darrell Magee attempt to arrest Jamaar Williams that night?” Madeksho asked. “If he did not, then his statement saying Jamaar Williams resisted arrest is a logical impossibility. There was no arrest to resist.”

Williams was arrested on July 12, 2019, in downtown Phoenix while protesting against the federal government’s treatment of migrants in detention centers. A state judge dropped the charges for lack of probable cause. A year later, Williams sued.

Williams was one of 16 people arrested, including two who lost a similar lawsuit against the Phoenix Police Department last summer. Their attorney, Mart Harris, is representing Williams as well.

After hours of dispersal orders, Phoenix police officers formed a skirmish line and began to push protesters off the street and light rail track and back onto the sidewalk, where multiple physical altercations ensued.

In a report written by another officer, Officer Darrell Magee said Williams assaulted him, then pulled away when Magee tried to arrest him.

“Jamaar Williams made a very bad decision in a fit of anger,” Magee’s defense attorney, Lori Berke, told a seven-person jury in her opening statements.

Berke said Williams, after being pushed by a third officer, “got extremely angry” and aggressively rushed back against the police skirmish line, pushing Magee in the chest and then pulling his arm away from Magee’s grip in a “tug-of-war.”

Magee then told his supervisor he had been assaulted and ordered an arrest unit to find Williams in the crowd.

In a Phoenix courtroom, Madeksho played video of his client being shoved by Officer Joseph Gage at the skirmish line. The footage is blurry, and what happens next is unclear.

In her opening, Berke clicked through the video frame-by-frame. While one frame showed Williams shoved backward and another showed him regaining his balance and moving back toward the skirmish line, it’s not clear that Williams shoved anyone in return. In the frame Berke pointed to, Williams’ head appears to snap backward, as if he himself were pushed again.

In a later frame, Berke pointed to Magee’s outstretched arm, but it’s unclear if Williams is in Magee’s grip or actively pulling away.

At a probable cause hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court, Judge David Seyer dismissed the charges. Francisco Barrios, the officer who wrote the report on behalf of Magee, admitted that Williams was wrongfully identified leading up to his arrest.

Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Miller subpoenaed only Barrios to testify, not Magee. Berke said Seyer was forced to dismiss the charges without prejudice based on the lack of evidence presented to him, but things would have gone differently if Magee had been called.

“He was not saying Mr. Williams did not commit the assault,” Berke said of the judge. She said she doesn’t know why Miller didn’t subpoena Magee.

Because the charges were dismissed without prejudice, prosecutors can still re-file felony charges in a seven-year window that has not yet expired.

“Being an accused felon affects a person’s relationships,” Madeksho said. “It affects his community. It affects his feeling of safety.”

Madeksho said Williams’ parents, both probation officers, raised him to follow the rules.

“He was raised to be active in his community,” he added. “He did that. He was raised to give back. He did that.”

After openings, Williams first called Miller to the stand. He will call the two officers, Barrios and Magee, on Wednesday morning.

In a Monday morning filing, Williams’ attorneys accused the city of Phoenix and Berke of obstructing subpoena service by refusing to accept the subpoenas on the officers’ behalf and misdirecting efforts to serve them at police headquarters. When a process server tried to hand a subpoena to Gage at the South Mountain precinct, Williams’ attorneys say officers arrived in their squad cars and blocked the entrance to the precinct.

Before last year’s trial of the others arrested at the protest, plaintiff attorney Harris said city staff ordered him not to serve the officers directly, but instead deliver subpoenas to the city. He did that this time around and said city staff ordered him to instead do the opposite.

U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich, a Donald Trump appointee, ordered Berke to make Gage and Barrios available first thing Wednesday morning.

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