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Behind nullified law, a man's fight

Local News
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Sports He feels vindicated by reversal of state statute
Sunday Currents shielding officers
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Homes STAFF WRITER

Homescape
November 13, 2005
Books
Passages
For most people, a misdemeanor arrest nearly a decade ago
The Last Week
wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Sunday
Monday For Darren Chaker,
Tuesday his 1996 arrest in El
Wednesday Cajon was much
Thursday more than that.
Friday
Eventually, he made
Saturday
a federal case out of
Weekly Sections it.
Books | UT-Books
Family And, in a ruling that
Food
has sent a minor
tremor through NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
Health
police officer groups Darren Chaker was convicted in 1999 of knowingly
Home filing a false complaint against El Cajon police officers.
and civil libertarians,
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the
Homescape he won. conviction Nov. 3.
Dialog
InStyle A three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Night & Day ruled Nov. 3 that a state law making it a crime to knowingly
Sunday Arts make a false complaint against a police officer was
Travel
unconstitutional.
Quest
The panel said the law was flawed because it unfairly
Wheels
punished the content of speech. Specifically, the court found
that the law targets only those who knowingly make a false
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complaint about a police officer while leaving unpunished
someone who knowingly makes a false report praising an
officer.

The justices said a law that punishes only people who engage
in knowingly false speech that is critical of police officers –
and does not sanction people who make knowningly false

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Behind nullified law, a man's fight | The San Diego Union-Tribune

comments supportive of police – "turns the First Amendment

on its head."

After years of trying to get his conviction overturned, Chaker

said he feels vindicated and is pleased that the ruling could
benefit others.

"I was so determined to vindicate myself, because I felt the

conviction was improper," he said.

But the case is probably not over.

San Diego Deputy District Attorney Kelly Rand said her office
might ask a larger panel of the circuit court to review the
ruling by the three judges. If that fails, the case could go the U.
S. Supreme Court.

"This case is not over yet," she said.

The state law at issue was enacted in 1995 in the wake of what
legislators said were a flood of complaints against police after
the Rodney King beating in 1991.

Rand noted that the law was unanimously upheld in 2002 by

the state Supreme Court, ruling in a case from Oxnard in
Ventura County. She said it does not infringe on free speech
because people with complaints against police can still protest
on the street, in forums, or in writings.

Instead, she said, Advertisement

the law specifically targets those who knowingly file a false

official complaint with the department. Police agencies are
required to investigate such allegations, which takes up time
and resources.

"If you file a formal complaint against the police that requires
an investigation," she said, "and you know from the beginning
it is false, then there is no utility to that complaint other than
to waste public tax dollars."

That is not how Chaker sees it. He said that because he made a
complaint about how he was arrested by El Cajon police in
April 1996, he was subsequently branded a criminal.

Chaker, of Beverly Hills, represented himself throughout

most of the legal battle, which took him to state and federal
courts several times. But he enlisted the assistance of the
American Civil Liberties Union for the appeal in front of the
9th Circuit panel.

Chaker is no stranger to courtrooms. He has filed numerous

suits over the years, and in 1996 was declared a "vexatious
litigant" in San Diego County. That is a finding made by courts
against people who repeatedly file lawsuits that are deemed to

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Behind nullified law, a man's fight | The San Diego Union-Tribune

be lacking in merit or otherwise unfounded. The designation

means no further suits from such a person can be filed
without the permission of the court.

Chaker said his lawsuit-filing days are behind him. He was

able to pursue this case because it was an appeal from a
criminal conviction and not subject to the vexatious-litigant
rules.

The case began when Chaker was arrested on a misdemeanor

theft-of-services charge in April 1996, for getting his car from
a repair shop without paying for it.

Those charges were eventually dismissed by the court.

Chaker filed a complaint with El Cajon police, saying his wrist

was twisted and he was struck twice in the ribs when he was
arrested. El Cajon police investigated and found the complaint
unwarranted.

Then, 11 months after the disputed arrest, prosecutors

charged Chaker with knowingly filing a false complaint.

After one jury deadlocked, a second convicted him in

February 1999. He was sentenced to two days in jail, 15 days of
public service and three years on probation.

To this day Chaker stands by his complaint. "He twisted my

wrist," he said. "In my mind, no, I did not make a false
complaint because he used excessive force."

The officers involved in the case could not be reached for

comment.

After the conviction, he appealed and lost, then filed a series

of habeas corpus petitions in the state Supreme Court. None
was granted. He also filed a petition in federal court in San
Diego, and lost there, also.

Around that time he enlisted the support of the ACLU, which

argued the bulk of the appeal. Mark Rosenbaum, legal
director of the ACLU in Los Angeles, said the ruling affirms
the principle that "citizens should not be stifled."

False complaints can be handled through perjury

prosecutions, he said, and not by punishing speech.

"The public should not be gagged from bringing legitimate

concerns about police officers," he said. "A core purpose of
the First Amendment is to encourage close scrutiny of the
workings of government."

Greg Moran: (619) 542-4586; greg.moran@uniontrib.com

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Behind nullified law, a man's fight | The San Diego Union-Tribune

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