Matzat Hearing Delayed To Make Way For Legendary Criminal Defense Attorney Tony Serra

On Tuesday, Attorney Alexis Briggs made what may be her final special appearance for Thomas Matzat before Judge Timothy Fall in Yolo County Superior Court.  Mr. Matzat was to be arraigned on felony charges that include five felony vandalism and 15 more misdemeanor charges.

On Thursday, Mr. Matzat will be among the 12 defendants arraigned in Department 9 on 20 misdemeanor charges of Penal Code section 647(c) blocking or obstructing a business and one misdemeanor conspiracy charge.  The DA has said he will offer a plea for probation and 80 hours of community service.

Mr. Matzat’s hearing was delayed until June 6 to allow the legendary defense attorney Tony Serra to step in.  Ms. Briggs suggested moving the hearing until Thursday but Judge Fall coldly shot that down, suggesting strongly that two days was insufficient time.

The emergence of the flamboyant and legendary attorney is the latest turn in a case that also features heavyweights Stewart Katz and Dan Siegel against Assistant Chief Deputy DA Mike Cabral.

Mr. Serra, now 78, is viewed by some to be one of the greatest criminal defense attorneys of his era.  He is known for his flamboyant and whirlwind style, described in a book as “the white tornado in court, a semantic samurai, a shaman, a bad, a hero to some, a trickster to others, and always a force to be reckoned with.”

Wrote the Los Angeles Times in 2005, as he was sentenced to prison for tax evasion, “He could have been sitting at his own funeral. J. Tony Serra — the ponytailed, pot-smoking criminal defense attorney famous for fighting the government and celebrated in the 1989 film “True Believer” — listened as a gallery of some of the Bay Area’s most respected lawyers honored him.”

“He was praised as a humanist who practiced law out of love and saved the government ‘millions of dollars’ with back-to-back pro bono cases, funded from his threadbare pocket. He was a ‘warrior’ with a ‘touch of sainthood,’ ‘a national treasure’ and a ‘hero.’ “

Mr. Serra is perhaps most notable for his successful defense of Black Panther leader Huey Newton.  More recently, he won the acquittal of Rick Tabish in the death of casino mogul Ted Binion.

He has also defended “the Hells Angels, Symbionese Liberation Army soldier turned soccer mom Sara Jane Olson and hundreds of murderers and drug dealers driven to the fringes, he says, by sociopolitical forces.”

An article describes him as having taken a  vow of poverty.  He is known for living a frugal lifestyle and driving a run-down car. All income from his cases is distributed to other lawyers except for a very small portion that he uses to pay rent and gas. All of his clothes (including suits, briefcases, shoes etc.) are bought secondhand.

Wrote the Times, “He has won honors as one of the nation’s best trial attorneys, earned the respect of adversaries and riled some judges with his hippie ways and overburdened schedule.”

The latter of which will be most fascinating in Yolo County court, as Judge Fall is probably in many ways the antithesis of Mr. Serra. Mr. Fall, known for his strict courtroom, and Mr. Serra for his antics, will prove an interesting mix.

Those who expect the DA and university to be able to prevail here should note that this is going to be a fight.  Attorney Stewart Katz, back in 2010, beat back the DA’s efforts to convict Brienna Holmes for resisting arrest and battery on a police officer.

Dan Siegel, himself a prominent attorney, was a long-time friend to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and served as her legal advisor until November 14, 2011 when he suddenly resigned in protest stating on Twitter, “No longer Mayor Quan’s legal advisor. Resigned at 2 am. Support Occupy Oakland, not the 1% and its government facilitators.”

He called the raid of the Oakland Occupy camp “tragically unnecessary.”

“Siegel, a civil rights attorney and one of Oakland’s most active and vocal police critics, said the city should have done more to work with campers before sending in police,” the San Francisco Chronicle wrote.

“The city sent police to evict this camp, arrest people and potentially hurt them,” Mr. Siegel said. “Obviously, we’re not on the same page. It’s an amazing show of force to move tents from a public place.”

The Chronicle continued, “Siegel strongly opposed any plan by the city to take down the month-old camp in the days leading up the police raid.”

Asian Studies Department Condemns Prosecution of Students

The Asian Studies Department sent the Vanguard a letter on Tuesday that was sent to Chancellor Katehi and Provost Hester, stating, “The faculty of the Department of Asian American Studies is deeply troubled by the criminal charges filed against the Davis Dozen, who include eleven students and one faculty member, for their sit-in at US Bank.”

The article continues: “This action, taken at great risk by the students and our colleague, was not only a fight for the rights of students, but serves as an effective protest against the intensified privatization of public higher education.”

“The Davis Dozen are not guilty of the excessive charges placed against them. We ask you to request District Attorney Jeff W. Reising to drop all charges against the Davis Dozen. The charges and plea bargain offered by the District Attorney are unjust. By alerting us to the terms of the contract with US Bank, the Davis Dozen has exposed the Administration’s complicity in going against the public mission of our university and all that it stands for. Having student ID cards serve simultaneously as US Bank debit cards highlights not only a conflict of interest, but also a collusion, in which UC Davis serves as both marketing tool and profit-making machine that does not serve the students’ best interests.”

The faculty note: “A number of our own students have had to drop out of school due to their inability to pay the increased tuition and some are forced to take two or three low-wage jobs or take on exorbitant student debt.”

“As an ethnic studies department inspired by student protest movements and built on the legacy of civil disobedience, we are disturbed that the Administration is not only regulating student dissent through policy and force, but also criminalizing protesters in ways that are contrary to what you call part of the ‘learning process,’ ” they continue.

“In our classes, civil disobedience is seen as a continuum in which students from an earlier era who challenged racial segregation, were, in fact, breaking the law. The Administration’s actions are having a chilling effect on our students in which many are increasingly anxious about the consequences of participating in any kind of political protest activity on campus and fear that they, too, will face criminal charges, or eleven years in prison, if they were to engage in public protest.”

They write, “Our students are not criminals; they are simply demanding the right to an affordable and accessible higher education, one not segregated by class or race.”

The conclude: “As scholars working in a field that offers students critical skills to challenge the status quo, in which civil disobedience is one strategic mode of action in the struggle for racial, economic, and social justice, we declare our solidarity with the Davis Dozen. We will continue to encourage our students to not only support the Davis Dozen, but also to engage in critical analysis, public discussion, and agitation until access to higher public education can be an equal opportunity for everyone. We are also planning to establish a legal defense fund to assist and support student protestors with their legal expenses in defense of their civil rights.”

The letter is signed by ten faculty members: Nolan Zane, Chair and Professor, Darrell Hamamoto, Professor, Wendy Ho, Associate Professor, Richard Kim, Associate Professor, Sunaina Maira, Professor, Susette Min, Associate Professor, Robyn Rodriguez, Associate Professor, Sarita Echavez See, Associate Professor, Caroline Kieu Linh Valverde, Assistant Professor, and Isao Fujimoto, Emeritus.

—David M. Greenwald reporting