In the first week of June, Oakland resident Luis Leal joined thousands of protesters in San Francisco to rally in solidarity with immigrants and against federal raids. He would become one of more than 150 arrested during the June 8 demonstration that ended with some protesters hurling eggs, paintballs and hammers at the walls of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement headquarters on Sansome Street.
But on Wednesday morning, a San Francisco trial judge dismissed all charges against Leal for resisting arrest and failing to obey verbal commands from the police. Body camera footage had exonerated the protester, the city’s public defender’s office said.
In a press statement, Deputy Public Defender Nuha Abusamra described Leal as a “proud Mexican American who was peacefully protesting in solidarity with the people of Los Angeles and around the Bay Area after the first surge of violence and unlawful ICE raids.”
It is unclear how many other protesters were charged. More than 200 people were arrested by San Francisco police in two separate protests on June 8 and 9.
Body-cam footage from the June 8 demonstration, reviewed by a judge on Oct. 15, revealed that Leal was taken to the ground by San Francisco police officers and struck with a baton “while yelling at him to move out of the way.” The camera footage crucially showed, however, that an SFPD officer “put hands on Leal before he even had a chance to respond,” the public defender’s office wrote.
Public Defender Mano Raju called this altercation a “physical attack” that should have never happened. “Mr. Leal put his hands up to protect himself from getting hit with the baton.” said Abusamra, “He was not blocking the police when they told him to move, and he was the only person who was injured in this interaction with police.”
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins had charged Leal with a felony for “allegedly removing an officer’s weapon,” the public defender’s office wrote. But the trial judge “dismissed the case entirely” after reviewing footage.
Following the Sansome Street demonstration, Mayor Daniel Lurie posted to X that he affirmed his commitment to the immigrant community and to the right to peacefully protest, but added that the city “will never tolerate violent and destructive behavior.” The next day, District Attorney Jenkins released a statement vowing to “review each case presented and make individualized assessments to determine what charges apply to each specific individual.”
The DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Abusamra commended the judge for reaching a “just outcome,” but criticized the SFPD and DA for treating the exercise of Leal’s First Amendment rights “like a crime” instead of a “lawful act of courage,” she said.