Page One

OAKLAND – A jury heard closing arguments and began deliberation Tuesday on charges that KPFA supporter Kahlil Jacobs-Fantauzzi obstructed or delayed a police officer during protests last summer at the listener-sponsored radio station in Berkeley. 

In their summation to the jury, the prosecution and defense agreed on a key point debated by the two sides in the trial’s opening arguments last week. Both had come to agree on the defense’s assertion that Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s actions leading to his arrest on July 21 took only a few seconds – not the minute or more originally argued by the prosecution. 

The two sides, however, continued to debate fiercely over whether Jacobs-Fantauzzi blocked a police officer in the course of his duties. 

Assistant District Attorney David Lim told the jury that Jacobs-Fantauzzi did just that. 

Prosecution witness and arresting officer Sgt. Randolph Files testified last week that on the morning of July 21, in the 1900 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Way in front of the radio station, Jacobs-Fantauzzi twice placed himself between Files and a protester who had illegally erected a tent on the sidewalk. 

Files testified that when Jacobs-Fantauzzi blocked his path, the officer told him that he was violating the law but attempted to go around Jacobs-Fantauzzi, without arresting him. 

When the officer stepped to the side, Jacobs-Fantauzzi stepped once again in front of him, blocking his access for the second time to the protester with the tent. 

The officers “were hindered by the defendant. They were obstructed by the defendant,” Lim told the jury in his summary. 

In mid-July, KPFA had been boarded up, and its staff and volunteers locked out of the station as part of a conflict with the Pacifica Foundation, which holds the license to the 50-year-old station. There were almost daily demonstrations with numerous acts of civil disobedience at the station. 

Although some 100 arrests were made, charges were dropped against almost all of those arrested. Just a handful of protesters pled guilty to jaywalking charges and were given “time served” for the several hours they spent in jail. 

Defense attorney Richard Krech told the jury his version of the story of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest. He said his client was exercising his free speech rights and acting as a police liaison on behalf of the protesters, when he approached police at about 7 a.m. that day. Within seconds of his brisk approach, police “took down” and arrested Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Krech said. 

“There is no dialogue, no warning, no blocking of the path, no legal arrest,” he said. 

Then Krech used the phrase he would repeat throughout his closing arguments: “There was no time to commit the crime.” 

Krech repeatedly attempted to show the jury that that Files, who was the arresting officer and the chief prosecution witness, had contradicted himself a number of times and had given false testimony. 

“He lied to you ladies and gentleman,” Krech told the jury. 

One way Krech tried to discredit Files was by attempting to show that Files may have misspoken when he said that he had not talked to fellow Berkeley police officers about the facts of the case. Krech reminded the jury that a fellow officer had testified that “he would not rule out that he had talked about the facts of the case with Officer Files.” 

Krech pointed out that Files had said there were only four officers on the scene at the time of Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s arrest, but noted that a videotape showed numerous officers at the van to which Jacobs-Fantauzzi was carried after his arrest. 

“He does not tell the whole truth,” Krech said. 

Central to Krech’s argument was Files’ contention that the incident with Jacobs-Fantauzzi took from 40 to 60 seconds. 

Testimony from defense witnesses and a video of the arrest show that the incident took only a few seconds, Krech noted. He told the jury that Files was a skilled and experienced witness, trying to mislead them. 

“This case is about an illegal arrest,” Krech said. “(Files) made a bad call and is trying to cover it up by convicting my client.” 

Krech said the jury should conclude that there was “reasonable doubt” in the prosecution’s case and asked jurors to rule his client not guilty. 

After viewing a videotape provided by the defense and hearing defense witnesses, Lim told the jury that he had come to believe that the overall incident, from the moment Jacobs-Fantauzzi approached the officer until the time of his arrest on the ground, took just a few seconds. 

Files had said the incident took much longer, but Lim explained his witness’ perspective. The officer was paying attention to the bystanders and Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s use of a bullhorn, rather than noting the precise amount of time the incident took, Lim contended. 

“The officer just testified to his best recollection,” Lim said, reminding the jury that in moments of distress, persons will swear that “my life flashed before my eyes.” 

Toward the end of closing arguments, Lim appeared to agree with Krech’s assertion that Files was not a thoroughly credible witness. 

“If Sgt. Files were the only person testifying...there would be enough reasonable doubt,” he said. He asked the jury to evaluate the sum of the evidence. 

“Luckily, your job is to look at all the facts from all the witnesses,” he said. 

Lim pointed to testimony of two of the character witnesses, UC Berkeley Professor of Education Pedro Noguera and Councilmember Kriss Worthington. Both had testified to the defendant’s truthfulness and to his political zeal. 

“A truthful person can obstruct a police officer,” Lim said. “Especially a truthful person who believes in his cause.” 

It is that fervor, that “passion for his cause (that Jacobs-Fantauzzi attempted) to stop (police) from what he thought was an egregious wrong,” Lim said. 

In closing, the prosecutor pointed to Jacobs-Fantauzzi’s 1997 arrest at UC Berkeley, when he was demonstrating in support of affirmative action. 

“You know what he’s done in the past,” he told the jury. “You can extrapolate.”