Sea of Humanity

Peter Choyce: Public Defender

The D.A. closed talked about how credible her witnesses were and how they are fine and upstanding and how they had no reason to lie.

I said that they were NOT credible nor were they very nice people!!

Account of events reported by The Pasadena Weekly.

I refuted all the essential points ! They were liars and thugs. You can dress Mr. R. up , but sorry, that is NO gentleman. You can see through that white shirt and tie easily, that man who speaks in monosyllabic answers had been well prepped for court but he is a THUG. He's worked as a security guard for 17 years and, sorry, but that doesn't really go to impress me towards the content of his character! Security guard??? Just because a man wears a uniform doesn't make him any less a liar. How arrogant that was for them to show up with no evidence and expect to automatically be believed. This isn't Mexico y'know!!!

Mark O. is a liar who committed perjury on the stand. He willingly hires known shoplifters and criminals. He lied about the security cameras all of a sudden not working on THAT one day! ya. I'm sure he has NO documentation about the system getting fixed the next day unless it's something HE produced, but he is so confident as lying under oath comes easy to him! He knows HE took a bottle of wine off the shelf and aided his hired thugs with their set up against an innocent store customer. He lied about how they were the only 2 people working that night, too.

The DA didn't expect the testimony from Lindsay M. She certainly didn't prepare for it anyway. She didn't know what to do when Lindsay concurred with me about the fact that there were not TWO guards!!. There were a MOB of them, up to eight. They were there when Lindsay showed up at HOWS after 8 O'Clock, standing outside the store smoking cigarettes. I believe that Orem willingly hires illegals and fails to "Document" his workers! I bet that's who the OTHER SIX people, some underage, were that night. He, like a lot of unscrupulous business in southern California cannot see to pay the fair or even minimum wage to qualified American employees, but must exploit people and hire illegals and criminals and actively engage in a system that has bankrupt California financially and morally.

Lindsay happened to mention how we two met back in 1981. Ironically, I was working with a group called the "Committee against Racism!" and we were organizing a bus trip from our college, Emerson, to go down to a rally in Washington DC to protest US involvement in El Salvador!. I am offended at the DA's accusations against my character, claiming I am some redneckian racist. I have a long track record of supporting progressive causes. LORDY!

People who USE their minority status to try to get away with criminal actions are the worst racists on the planet. I am homosexual yet I didn't sit there and use MY minority status to make MY points. I was told by many fine upstanding white liberals "Not to bring up the Mexican thing." This is profoundly Racist. What is everyone so afraid of? I don't feel any obligation to say nice things about Mexico. When I was shut in that small stuffy room being interrogated by Spanish speaking guards, not having any rights or being able to use the toilet, sorry, that's how I felt. I felt like I had left America. The system of laws that I grew up privilege to suddenly did not apply even though I barely left Pasadena!

I know what I am saying. I don't use pejorative statements against people. Where I come from, we can say what we want about foreign Governments. How is it in my interest to omit the facts?. Those guards all stood around me speaking the language of a foreign nation. I don't think that would be tolerated even in a country as corrupt as Mexico.

I said in my closing argument that every day thousands of people cross over barbed wire, try to navigate the currents of the RIO GRANDE to get here. That is because we HAVE a better system. We, America, the image of America at least, offers hope to the rest of the world. People come here to ESCAPE oppressive and corrupt regimes. I told the judge that if I was born in Haiti or in Mexico, I'd be the first one trying to dig a hole into the Arizona desert and make my way OUT too. I didn't believe that just cuz someone wears a uniform that I would automatically lose in court. It's still America.

And the judge agreed.

I won against a person who FINISHED LAW COLLEGE AND GOT A LAW DEGREE!!!