by Antoinnette Borbon
On Wednesday the state began the first day of a presumed two-day trial of a young defendant accused of assault and a hate crime. The alleged victim testified, as the state’s first witness, in front of a jury in Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom.
He told the court that he and the defendant were at a local bar in downtown Davis, Tres Hermanas, when the defendant came past him and uttered racist remarks and hit his turban off of his head. He testified he was extremely angry and felt the defendant had intentions of striking him, so he began hitting the defendant first, in what he called a self-defense mechanism. Once the two became involved in the altercation, bouncers were summoned to break it up. But no blood or bruises were shown on either the defendant or the alleged victim.
The alleged victim testified that he was the one who called the police to report the incident. He also stated that he was so upset after the fight that he made the mistake of giving the wrong name to police, as one of the witnesses. He told the court, “I have heard all my life, probably three million times, hateful words and just blew them off to childishness but never had my turban hit off of my head.”
Under cross-examination, Deputy Public Defender Emily Fisher asked the alleged victim about the level of intoxication he and the defendant were under. He stated he was not drinking but knew the defendant was visibly drunk, although he was not sure just how drunk. Ms. Fisher then asked him about the witnesses. He told of one friend who was only about three to five feet away, and one more who he believed saw the whole incident.
Upon answering all of the defense’s questions, the alleged victim went on to elaborate more than Judge Rosenberg felt the jurors needed to hear. The judge interrupted his long-winded answers, which did not necessarily pertain to the questions asked by the defense.
The prosecution’s second witness was one of the bouncers who rushed to break up the fight. David Van Hill testified to what he stated was an altercation, for which he felt there was no necessity to get the police involved. He stated, “There were no bruises or blood and we broke the fight up, it didn’t appear as though we needed to call the police.”
But he did testify to the level of anger he witnessed in the alleged victim. He stated the alleged victim was livid that night about his turban being knocked off.
Under cross-examination by Ms. Fisher, she asked Mr. Van Hill if there were surveillance cameras on. Mr. Van responded, yes, but he did not think they showed everything, due to the amount of people in the bar that night. He also told the defense that the only witness he talked to was the friend who stood only three to five feet away and who backed up the alleged victim’s story.
After the second witness was excused, so were the jurors, as it was time to adjourn for the day.
Testimony continues in the morning and is expected to wrap up by late afternoon, sending the jury out for deliberation.
Misdemeanor DUI Case
By Vanguard Court Watch Interns
The jury trial of Robin Lee Bullock began on Wednesday March 6, 2013, in Department 8 under Judge Sam McAdams. Bullock is being charged with one count of misdemeanor driving under the influence, and one count of using controlled substances.
On August 8, 2010, Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy Gary Richter followed and pulled over Bullock on County Road 4, after Bullock allegedly “drifted” several times toward the center divider and back to his lane, and also after noticing that Bullock’s car registration was one month expired.
After pulling him over, Deputy Richter saw that Bullock was avoiding eye contact and had watery, bloodshot red eyes. Deputy Richter searched his car, found no drugs, then called Deputy Sam Machado to conduct a field sobriety test.
After the test was conducted, the officers determined Bullock was under the influence of something, and took him back to the station to take a urine sample.
Defense Attorney Campanella showed a video of what was taped, during the following and pulling over of Bullock that August night. In the video, it did not seem as if Bullock’s vehicle was drifting to the center divider nor did it seem as if Bullock was “impaired” to drive. Bullock, however, did admit to taking prescribed Vicodin one hour prior to being pulled over.
The defense argued that Deputy Richter initially started following Bullock’s vehicle that night because Bullock was coming from a “high crime area.” Deputy Richter did not notice Bullock “drifting” to the side, nor had any indication of Bullock being under the influence until after he started to follow him.
