Rival cities and fans denounce attack on Giants fan at Dodger Stadium

April 5, 2011

Longtime opponents express a shared sense of outrage as a Giants fan remains in a coma after being attacked by two Dodgers fans.

Reporting from Los Angeles and San Francisco—
For a long time, for all the heroes and the heroics, the Koufaxes and Garveys and hobbled home run trots, the experience of going to a Los Angeles Dodgers game was largely about beating traffic. FOR THE RECORD:
Bryan Stow: In coverage of the beating on March 31 of Giants fan Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium, The Times in three instances has misspelled his first name as Brian: on April 5, in an article in Section A about how the attack had united rival fans in calling for improved security, and twice on April 12, in captions on the covers of Section A and the LATExtra section. —

Fans arrived late, left early and — at least in the eyes of rivals — didn’t seem terribly concerned with what happened in the intervening hours.

But over time, being a Dodgers fan became an almost tribal identity to some. That helped to rebuild a fervent base of support for the team — but brought in, too, an unsettling pattern of fan abuse and boorish behavior that hit another low last week when a Giants fan was severely beaten on opening day. The violence left even the truest blue Dodgers fans saying something has to change.

“It’s not right,” said Tommy Lasorda, the Hall of Fame former Dodgers manager and, for many years, the face of the organization. “It’s just a baseball game.”

Brian Stow, 42, a Santa Cruz paramedic, a father of two and a Giants fan, was walking through the Dodger Stadium parking lot with two friends after the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over San Francisco. Stow was wearing Giants apparel, police said, and two young men began taunting him. One of the assailants then cursed the Giants and blindsided Stow with blows to the back and head, police said.

The two assailants repeatedly kicked and punched Stow while he was on the ground. Stow’s friends attempted to help, and were also punched and kicked before the attackers fled in a car driven by a woman. Police said it appears there was also a 10-year-old boy in the car.

Stow has a brain injury and is in a medically induced coma at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. He remained in critical condition on Monday.

Part of Stow’s skull has been removed to reduce the pressure on his brain, said Rebecca Mackowiak, his colleague at a paramedic service. Even if he recovers physically, she said, “he won’t be the same person again.”

The attack has helped add to Dodger Stadium’s reputation as the home to what former major league player Dustan Mohr a few years ago told a reporter might be “the worst crowd” in baseball.

The beating stunned fans from both teams. In the games that followed over the weekend, San Francisco supporters were jittery; one removed his Giants license plate frame before the game so his car wouldn’t get vandalized. Two children, 9 and 14, forbade their San Francisco-raised mother from wearing a Giants cap to the game because they were afraid she would get hurt.

“I think it’s insane,” said Kevin Kafayi, a dentist with a practice at Union Square in San Francisco. Kafayi has been a Giants fan since moving from Iran in 1986.

“The guy is in a coma,” Kafayi added. “He was beaten unconscious. It’s unbelievable to me. I love the Giants. I hate the Dodgers. But to go that far, to beat someone into a coma is unbelievable. It’s taking it too far.”

A $50,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to arrests in the case. The mayors, police chiefs and teams from both Los Angeles and San Francisco took the rare step of issuing a joint statement decrying the violence as “unconscionable.”

“Baseball is a family sport that has unified our country after times of crisis and tragedy,” said the statement, which was signed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, San Francisco Police Interim Chief Jeff Godown, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Giants managing partner Bill Neukom. “This senseless act of violence has no place in our society and certainly not in our national pastime.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called Monday for the team to invest in even more security and to curtail alcohol sales.

“The Dodgers organization has an obligation to make security a top priority now,” he said. “Denying that lack of security played a role in this attack is simply sticking their head in the sand.”

That criticism appears to be directed at McCourt, who said over the weekend that the attack was “tragic” but insisted he was satisfied with security levels at the ballpark. Among a reported opening-day attendance of 56,000, the LAPD reported, 72 fans were arrested, most related to alcohol use, and another 48 were cited for traffic infractions and the like. That was a sharp decline from opening day 2010, when 132 arrests were recorded.

By Scott Gold, Richard Winton and Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles DA Sends Former Mayoral Candidate to Jail without trial

LOS ANGELES, Calif., March 24 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Craig Rubin has never been accused of actually selling marijuana. In three hearings the only testimony from two LAPD police officers, Tracye Fields-Black and Cecil Mangrum, is that Rubin spoke to both officers about the Bible, the Ten Commandments and the testimony of Jesus Christ; and now he is going to jail for it and without a trial. This is a prime example that we are currently living in a police state. “Trutanich and Cooley, our local elected attorneys, are ignoring real crime, wasting tax payer’s money and aiding and abetting an ongoing criminal enterprise (LAPD Narcotics Division),” says Rubin former candidate for mayor of Los Angeles.

Rubin has been a licensed clergy member since graduating from UCLA with a history major that emphasized religious history. On October 22nd 2009 Rubin was arrested at his wife’s store, Tara’s Tee-shirts, now closed, when police entered without a warrant and pointed weapons at customers in the store, they seized money from Rubin’s wife’s store and claimed it as drug money, which allows them to keep it. Officers and Detectives then allegedly falsified police documents stating that a minor customer in Tara Rubin’s shop was actually in Mr. Rubin’s church that provided legal medical marijuana. In the first arrest Rubin alleges that the law enforcement officers who arrested didn’t report a $10,000 check Rubin had written them and they cashed the check prior to arresting and seizing back the money. These funds were never reported as seized.

Author and pastor Rubin believes the jailing is retaliation for his mayoral campaign. “This thing has appeared rigged since the beginning.” Rubin has been anti-prohibition for over 30 years having worked with Dennis Peron and Jack Herer. Rubin has videos showing, “The biggest pot dealer I know of in the world,” and with Rubin’s experience that is saying something, “associating with law enforcement going in-and-out of a private door belonging to legalzoom .com, across the street from Temple 420, all day.” Rubin has witnesses that place the well-known alleged drug dealer using the same private door to observe the arrest. Rubin further asserts, “Coincidentally Robert Shapiro, legalzoom.com spokesman, calls me the next morning to ‘help out’ when he is supposedly the Chairman of some anti-drug group — and the person he claims asked him to call me, none other than the CEO of legalzoom .com, himself a person I’ve never met.”

In 2006, when the first arrest took place Rubin and his wife had their life’s savings seized prior to being convicted of any crime, thus limiting their ability to hire an attorney, but coincidentally an attorney approached Rubin in Superior Court claiming to be working as a criminal defense attorney. She had “street cred,” being a pastor herself, and having represented Tupac Shakur in the past. Rubin retained her through trial, but after repeated written requests she was unable to provide a retainer agreement. Rubin was informed by a California attorney, claiming to supervise her, that his attorney was a full-time employee of the federal government moonlighting without permission from her job at the Veteran’s Administration.

“When you hear about something my office does that appears to be unjust,” Carmen Trutanich said at a recent Homeowner’s Association, “I want you trust that our office is doing the right things for the right reasons.” However, it appears clear that Trutanich has worked with LA DA Steve Cooley to close Rubin’s medical marijuana club, Temple 420, for all the wrong reasons.

In 2006, Rubin was convicted after being denied the ability to show the jury Officer Tracye Fields-Black’s membership agreement to the temple and was prevented from mentioning medical marijuana at trial. Rubin states, “My potential witnesses, who were members of Temple 420, were assigned lawyers by the court and each warned that they too could be charged with a conspiracy leading them to face up to 20 years in prison,” Rubin claims this was only one of the things that made the trial unfair because an M.D. he had lined up to testify backed out after allegedly being warned he could be charged. “The only officer to testify against me, Field-Black, committed perjury and without her testimony there wouldn’t have been a conviction.”

Rubin is harsh on local politicians and law enforcement, “Our city and county are sick. They have leukemia and the white blood cells that should be protecting us, are our elected attorneys, have turned on the citizens and are attacking law abiding people for their own political gains.”

At the January homeowners association meeting Trutanich said, “I haven’t gone after and shut down the medical marijuana clubs.” However, on October 22, 2009, prior to that untrue statement, Trutanich’s office had Rubin arrested. Trutanich also said, “Probably my kids have smoked it (marijuana). We know it is not the worst thing in the world. It is the criminal element that comes with it.” He went on to say, “I do law, not policy and selling medical marijuana is illegal.”

Officer Cecil Mangrum testified that Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg had Rubin arrested on a permit issue one day after Greenberg wrote a letter to Rubin from the City Attorney’s office saying that the City Attorney’s office wasn’t pursuing permit issues. Mangrum testified that in his career had made only 15 controlled buys of marijuana; all of them at medical marijuana clubs. With all those buys the only person ever arrested according to his sworn testimony is Pastor Rubin who says, “Cooley and Trutanich are trying to label me the ‘criminal element’ when I am pastor running a church that provides legal medical marijuana. My arrest was purely political. Cooley and Trutanich are thugs because everyone knows there are a few MMJ clubs run by, shall we say, less ethical people, yet they arrest me?”

Rubin words cut like a knife when it comes to holding public officials accountable for their actions. “I never broke the law. All it takes is one corrupt judge and a District Attorney with political ambition and they can send any innocent person in the city to jail.” Rubin is not happy about having to go to jail without being able to confront his accuser and without a trial. “I am a pastor who has never personally sold pot according the LAPD’s own testimony. My job is to teach pot smokers about the Bible and that is all I have done. Our justice system is corrupt and our government is sick. In this case it is Justice that needs to be investigated including the Judge Windham who seems to be in collusion with Trutanich and Cooley.”

Rubin is also in possession of letters written by the LAPD to Rubin’s landlord threatening to seize her property if she didn’t evict Rubin because they claimed the pastor was running an “illegal” marijuana dispensary. They claimed to be prosecuting a case against him, but the case was dropped because Rubin’s dispensary was 100% completely legal according to Judge Windham’s own words, so there was no case against Rubin the DA could pursue. Rubin is considering a case of slander against the LAPD for alleging his club was selling marijuana “illegally” when in fact it was not.

Rubin is asking people sympathetic to his cause to call Governor Schwarzenegger’s office to ask for some relief for Rubin in this case. (916) 445-2841 ext. 6. Rubin has to turn himself in on March 26, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. at the LAX Courthouse. “People keep joking,” Rubin says, “don’t pick up the soap, but the only one being screwed is the tax payers as the City of LA spent millions upon millions of local dollars to put me, a pastor, in jail for one gram of pot. I hope people are outraged at how Cooley and Trutanich are using the people’s money.”