San Diego Club X Wins Suit

Tuesday, February 1 2000. San Diego.

PROSECUTION CALLS IT QUITS!!!! ALL REMAINING CHARGES TO BE DROPPED!!!

THE SAN DIEGO SIX WIN!!!

Today, Deputy City Attorney, Tristan Higgins-Goodell, informed defense attorney, Andy Zmurkiewicz, that the City Attorney's office will no longer pursue its cases against the remaining five individuals cited during the October 29th, 1999, Vice Unit raid on a Club X play party. The charges against these remaining five individuals will all be dropped. This wil take place as each individual case holds its Pre-Trial Conference, which will all take place later this month. Today's announcement is a major victory for the San Diego Six! It is a major victory for the leather/ SM/ fetish community here in San Diego, and also throughout the Nation. In short, WE WON and won BIG!!!

While the Deputy City Attorney did not share her office's motivation for coming to this decision, the complete defeat and rejection of their first case _had_ to something to do with it. In that major decision, rendered last week, the jury completely rejected the Prosecution's case against, Crickett, the first of the Six to go to trial. In a twelve to zero vot the jury found Crickett not guilty of the Lewd Acts charge facing her. That jury further commented that they felt the Prosecution's case was"weak" and that the whole thing "was a waste of time."

These strong words by the jury against the Prosecution seem to have finally had an affect. We were fearful that it might be otherwise and that the Prosecution might have proceeded with at least one more case. If for no other reason than to prove their initial defeat wasn't simply the Defense being lucky. Fortunately, someone in the City Attorney's office thought better of this and decided to call the whole thing off. This saved them any further humiliation in court as well as saved the tax payers of San Diego from having anymore of their money wasted in a pointless trial.

While the Deputy City Attorney's announcement holds true today, it wil still take some time for it to be put into actuality. Each of the remaining five individuals will still have to go through their Pre-Trial Conferences so that the process can fully take effect. That means mor time in general and more court time for the defense attorneys in specific. This does not in any way diminish the importance of what occurred here today for this was the minimum that would be expected. The Six were, in fact, prepared for much worse - each having to go throug their own trial process! Not now though!

This is a major victory for the Six, for San Diego leatherfolk, and for leatherfolk nationwide. Time will tell just how much of a precedent can be drawn from this case. Club X will be working with attorney Zmurkiewicz to determine how to best apply the results of this victory - both here in San Diego and elsewhere. Together with the other leather/ SM/ fetish groups here in San Diego, Club X will also be retaining an attorney to review its policies and procedures, as well as those of all the other participating groups, with an eye to making them even better and harder for Vice to subvert. Look for more information about this in the near future.

In the meantime there are more immediate needs to tend to. As sweet as this victory is (and damn! It IS sweet!), it has not come without a price. On a human level, Six individuals have had their lives turned upside down by this police attack on their private, legal, adult activities. Most of these Six people had not had anything so much as a parking ticket to deal with in the past and now they were being charged with committing "sex crimes." Defending themselves from these false charges has proven extremely traumatic for these people. It has been emotionally draining to have to go through such a process even when you know in your heart that you will eventually win in the end. The Six are all breathing a huge sigh of relief today, knowing that this whole ugly thing will soon be over.

It is however, not over yet. Aside from the remaining Pre-Tria Conferences, there are also the bills to pay. Hefty bills at that. Bills which far exceed what the Six are able to pay themselves. To pa for thi victory we still need your help. The San Diego Club X Party Defense Fund is up and running and needs any donation you can spare.

Please make your checks out to:

San Diego Club X Party Defense Fund

and mail them to:

SDCXPDF
PO Box 3092
San Diego CA 92163

You can also check out the San Diego Six website. This site is at:

http://www.geocities.com/sdsixfund

It contains all the information about the Six you could ask for. This
runs from all the press releases we have sent out about the Six, to a full description of the events which sparked this effort, to contact information, to their Legal Defense Fund info, and, finally, to information about the "Support the Six" T-shirts.


Thank you,

Madoc Pope

Co-Chair
Club X San Diego
on behalf of the Six