Caravan 4 Justice’s Tatiana Turner, out now on a million dollars bail, is finally having her preliminary hearing this week, nearly a year after the Yorba Linda protest at which she drove her white Nissan through a crowd of counter-protesters. District Attorney Todd Spitzer, in a (possibly politically motivated) example of the “over-charging” he had promised not to do, is still charging her with attempted murder for this incident, along with twelve other arguable felonies – although to many of us Tatiana’s driving her car forward through a threatening crowd looked more like panicked self-defense.
This’ll be a longer-than-usual preliminary hearing, much to the irritation of Judge Beatriz Gordon – prosecutor Israel Claustro had originally estimated that questioning his 13 witnesses would take six hours; now he estimates it’ll take two-and-a-half days, finishing up Thursday at noon. Tatiana’s public defender, Alisha Montoro, has never seen a “preliminary hearing” with so many witnesses, testifying so extensively. We got through six of ’em today, but by far the most time was spent with one of the two people who were actually injured by Tatiana – Brian Willis, whose leg was broken.
Brian bending over to photograph Tatiana’s license plate – at the same moment that someone kicks the back of her car HARD and she panics and drives forward. Bad timing!
Brian’s a real angry-looking guy – well, you’d be angry too if somebody broke your leg, but he has the tense face of someone who’s been angry for years or decades. But especially now, and especially at Tatiana. His first impression of the lady in the car that ran him over – his description to the police – was “a short Hispanic bitch.” (I guess she could look Hispanic at a quick glance.) And he has tried once or twice to get her address from law enforcement, although he denies it.
The Judge and attorneys eventually settled on the imprecise shorthand “Trump supporters vs BLM supporters” to describe the two sides that day. In Brian’s telling there were about 200 of each, but more dependable sources have the Trumpies outnumbering the BLM’s nearly ten to one. Brian also strained credulity by describing BLM as armed to the teeth, with batons, hockey sticks, pepper spray, shields, helmets, goggles… while claiming to have seen ZERO weapons on HIS side.
The same shirt Brian was wearing – you could own one too!
And Brian’s side was not simply “Trump supporters.” It was like pulling teeth for Ms. Montoro to get him to describe and explain the shirt he was wearing, till he finally blurted out that it was a “THREE PERCENTER SHIRT” like the one to the right. Wikipedia describes the Three-Percenters as “an American far-right, anti-government militia movement, which advocates gun ownership rights and resistance to the U.S. federal government.” Funny choice for a guy claiming none of his buddies were armed.
In any case the folks opposed to BLM were originally lined up on the OTHER side of the street, the south side of Imperial Highway, while the BLM folks were on the north side, in the library parking lot, hoping to have a peaceful march. The OC Sheriffs, who didn’t do much to keep the peace, instructed the Trumpies to stay on their side, but as soon as they had a chance they crossed over and into the library lot. So…
Why did the Trumpies Cross the Road?
“Got it!” That redhead behind Brian is Danielle Lindgren – the other Trumpy to get injured, who’s been charged with carrying a billy club, and whom we’ll meet soon.
Brian’s explanation of why he and hundreds of others crossed over to the library parking lot was: TO PROTECT YORBA LINDA. “We had intelligence,” he claimed, “that BLM was planning to march through my town, and destroy things.” Later he contended, as though stating common knowledge, “OF COURSE Black Lives Matter are violent and destructive.”
One of the first things the observant Brian saw in the library lot was Tatiana’s white Nissan “staged” there. A weird and loaded word, for a parked car, and DA Spitzer uses it too. Do we stage our cars every time we park them? It makes it sound like she planned to have her car surrounded so she could run over some Trumpies! If it was staged, parked differently from the other cars, it could just as well have been “staged” to make a quick exit if things went bad as they did.
Then Brian saw the owner of the Nissan, Tatiana herself. He claims he saw her pepper spraying an elderly man, and waving around a stick. Then, he admits, he yelled at her, “Hit ME with that stick!”, probably in some defiant, I-dare-you-to tone.
But Alisha the PD kept wanting to know, how exactly were Brian and his hundreds of Trump-supporting friends planning to keep Tatiana and her friends from marching down Imperial Highway that day, a scenario of certain devastation? Well, said Brian, simply, we were just not going to let them “cross through our line.” “You had created a line?” “It just developed naturally.” Brian insisted that, even though shouts, screams, pushes, shoves, and the occasional racial epithet were flying back and forth, his comrades would never have done anything violent, but stand there impassive and immovable like so many civil rights pioneers.
Brian further stretched credulity, when asked if he had taken any video that day, by saying he really didn’t remember. Do you believe that? He remembers everything else about that day, before and after having his leg broken, but not whether or not he took a video? Don’t you rather think that the video or videos he took shows things he doesn’t want us to see?
Tomorrow, or soon, we will meet the other counter-protester injured by Tatiana’s car – that’s Danielle Lindgren You can see that redhead standing behind Brian in a picture above, wearing a MAGA hat. Brian says he neither knew nor saw her (though they are great friends now), which is convenient as her misdemeanor charge for carrying a billy club kind of ruins his story that only the other side was armed.
We shall continue our coverage tomorrow, and I think we’ll be hearing soon from not only Danielle, but the legendary Mick “Florio” Sobczak, and if you’ve forgotten who that is, here’s a refresher:
Read Part 2: “SHERIFFS WITH AMNESIA” (and much more!)
Brian sounds like he would be a true pleasure to cross-examine.
Do you wonder WHY, based on the beliefs that he expressed, that the counter-protesters WOULDN’T be armed? I’d love to hear his explanation — under oath, of course — although I sense me that while he might be an Oath Keeper he’s probably not an oath-keeper.
I’d love to see the transcripts of this Prelim testimony if they become public.
Tia is a professional agitator and I hope she is charged to the full extent of the law for her assault and other related charges.
OK, anonymous hanging judge: what makes you use the word “professional”? Do you mean that she gets paid for agitation? By whom? [Hopes: Please say Soros!]
By all accounts this woman is a danger to society. She was looking for trouble, guess what? She found it. What’s with the vigorous defense of this terrorist? And who By the way are your “more dependable sources” ? You sound like propagandist at the Voice of OC.
More dependable sources:
More dependable sources on the number of BLM vs Trumpies include my friends who were there, every press report, and the sheriffs who watched.
And more dependable than Brian, who said a lot of questionable things.
That’s the last time you use that pseudonym here, by the way.
What do you want to bet that these brave anonymous commenters used to spit at people who wore Guy Fawkes masks?
Oh but they did get “braver” after Trump was elected. They thought they were in the majority for a few years.
Y’all wanted Spitzer. Ya got him for another 20 years.
I wanted not-Rackauckas, and I’m still glad to have that. I wanted not-whoever-Rackauckas-would-maneuver-into-being-his-replacement, and I’m still very glad to have that. I don’t think that Spitzer serves more than two terms after this; but if he serves even that many then it will be because that’s what our “Fortress Orange” voters want — and meanwhile we can push and pull him to be and fo better.
So I take it that you’re on Team Peter Hardin now? Or is it Team Above-It-All?
Zenger’s idea was that Rackauckas would die sooner and is equally bad, which is a valid point.
Spitzer seemed like he COULD be better, but his record these three years has been abysmal. I’m still glad I supported him, because there’s nothing more dispiriting and corrosive than someone with a record like Rackauckas’ just continuing to get re-elected and re-elected.
So now I’m completely behind Hardin. I have met with him a few times, donated, attended his fundraiser, heard him speak several times, had an ad ready to go for him here… BUT…
I’m clearly the object of an ongoing smear campaign, who knows when it’ll be over, and it’s best for people I support if I keep my distance for now.
I also hoped Spitzer-the-not-Rakaukas would be better. But he seems to be doing the same stuff — covering up for the Sheriffs and playing politics with the BOS.
Now there’s this new scandal about him hiring a firm to do consulting on his campaign while he is in charge of investigating that same company for overcharging taxpayers millions on the Toll Roads. That sure smells to high heaven.
Wow that wouldn’t be Venture Strategic would it? Jeff Corless’ firm? If so, they are also consulting for Larry Elder. It’s hard to keep up with all the Spitzer scandals, I’ll have to look this up.
Anybody who thought that Spitzer would be a better choice than Tony Racetrack needs his (or her head examined). Spitzer has left a trail of slime across the OC landscape for more than 25 years of self-service while pretending to serve the public. Racetrack had one last election in him. Spitzer will be around for another 20 years doing his schtick. And now that’s he’s ensconced, quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Word was, as I reported at the time, that Rackauckas was going to quit early in his term and — presumably after making an arrangement that he could still pull down plenty of money as a consultant — was going to offer his hand-picked replacement over to the Supes for a 4-1 (or at worst 3-2) vote to appoint.
That lucky fella? The City Attorney of Huntington Beach, Michael Gates.
Spitzer will probably be around for only another 10-11 years doing his shtick — unless Hardin or someone like him can beat him, which becomes increasingly thinkable as the county continues to evolve and as the demands as the Trumpers upon Republicans in law enforcement get more strident and insane.
It’s easy to reach a conclusion if you get to cherry pick your own facts. But leaving out critical ones is then inevitable. Please try to actually be as smart as you think you are.
Vern, lots of things “could” happen. Spitzer becoming a decent, fair, non-megalomaniac DA just isn’t one of them.
Hoping for it was charming in the same way we find little kiddies’ belief in Santy Clause charming.
Fine, fine. Read part two now, it’s pretty good
A judge ruled she will have to stand trial. I hope she is convicted and sentenced to the maximum. These asshole activists drum up all kinds of shit for NOTHING.
Vern is a BLM shill and was hanging with the terrorist group and shaking hands with them for 2 days. His recollection of the prelim is intellectually dishonest.
Not true, I sat there for three days either with my wife or by myself, and I shook one person’s hand on the first day, for 2 seconds, not 2 days.
But the important thing is – what did I get wrong? You got anything?
I’m finishing up my sequel, about the second and third day of testimony – it’s called “Sheriffs With Amnesia.”
Know who else just loves the term “intellectually dishonest?”
Cunningham. Sometimes Chemical Lewinsky, but much more often Cunningham. (Chemical Lewinsky is more into his “testicular fortitude.”)
I still don’t grasp the difference between intellectually dishonest and dishonest.
The both of them are testicularly dishonest.
One wild claim Brian Willis made, which I forgot to put in the story and don’t feel like adding in, was about all the tasers / stun guns there. I know there were some, on both sides; of course Brian says only the BLM folks had ’em.
But the wild claims were 1) that he knew the sound of tasers because he had heard them “hundreds of times in his life.” Who hears tasers hundreds of times? He does claim to be a private investigator, but still, hundreds?
And 2) when asked how many time he heard the unmistakable arc-ing sound of a taser that day in the Yorba Linda Library lot, he said “Well over 200 times.” That is sure a whole lotta tasing! Especially for just one side. Poor tased Trumpies.
It’s certainly possible if there’s an echo inside his head — as seems likely.
Vern, Bryan likes to throw around the phrase, intellectually dishonest, because that describes him to the tee. The man wouldn’t know the truth. If it hit him in the face, he currently lives in Ajijic, Chapala Mexico, and is a complete instigator down here, constantly causing trouble.
Jaja I hate that phrase. My second biggest blog enemy uses it all the time. It’s a pretentious way to call someone a liar, and you’re probably not one if they have to couch it that way.
I find brian’s comment about Latina bitch kind of hypocritical. Brian may have a white last name but his mom is Hispanic and his family are from Chihuahua Mexico.
Well, in his defense, most of us would call a woman who just ran our leg over a “bitch” … and turned out Tatiana’s not even Latina!
Interesting chisme though…