ACLU files suit against Costa Mesa

The ACLU on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the city of Costa Mesa over the treatment of a protester who was arrested at a Jan. 3 City Council meeting.

The suit was filed by the ACLU of Southern California on behalf of Benito Acosta, a 24-year-old Costa Mesa resident and Orange Coast College student who also uses the name Coyotl Tezcatlipoca. It claims city officials violated Acosta’s rights to free speech, equal protection and due process by silencing him and by using force to restrain him, eject him from the council meeting, and arrest him.

Acosta was at the Jan. 3 meeting to speak against several recent council decisions, particularly a proposal the council approved in December to train city police for immigration enforcement. He was ordered to stop speaking and was then removed from the meeting by Costa Mesa police after he urged those who agreed with him to stand up.

According to the suit, Acosta was cut off before his allotted three minutes was up, and when he protested, he was surrounded by police who grabbed, struck, pushed and kicked him while dragging him outside the council chambers.

During the five hours Acosta was in custody, he was taken to the hospital for injuries caused by police, said Belinda Escobosa Helzer, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

“He opposed the city’s efforts, he criticized, and because of that criticism he was silenced and he was assaulted,” Helzer said. “It’s clear from looking at the videotapes [of the meeting] that he was targeted because of the content of his speech.”

The lawsuit also says an earlier speaker ? Minuteman Project founder and anti-illegal-immigration activist Jim Gilchrist ? who supported the council’s decisions was given more than three minutes to speak and was allowed to ask supporters to stand.

The suit names as defendants the city, Mayor Allan Mansoor, Police Chief John Hensley and 10 unnamed people, some of whom may be police officers.

The Costa Mesa Police Department referred questions about the lawsuit to the city attorney’s office. Costa Mesa City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow said she could not comment because she hasn’t seen the suit.

“I don’t have any comment at this time,” Mayor Allan Mansoor said.

Helzer said the ACLU filed the suit to ensure that residents can speak out about city issues without fear of being arrested and beaten.

“It is important that I speak up about what happened so that it does not become more common,” Acosta said in a news release. “It’s painful to talk about what happened to me, but I don’t want this rough unfair treatment to scare people into not speaking out about this proposal or anything else.”

The ACLU filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The Tonantzin Collective, an activist group to which Acosta belongs, asked Barlow in January to investigate Mansoor’s conduct at the council meeting. The complaint was referred to the city prosecutor, but Barlow said Thursday that no decision has been reached on whether to pursue it.