City Government

New Evidence and Lawsuit Support Brooks’ Self Defense Argument

Published

5 years ago

October 11, 2018

After months of investigation, the law firm of Siegel, Yee & Brunner filed a claim on behalf of Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks this week against the City Attorney’s office of Oakland alleging that City Attorney Barbara Parker and her staff failed to competently represent Brooks in a lawsuit brought against her and the City by Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther chairwoman.

Barbara Parker, the City Attorney, represented Brooks in a civil trial that concluded in March 2018. The City lost the case and ultimately had to pay a $1.2 million fine and $1 million in legal fees. Brooks was required to pay $75,000.

This is not the only trial Parker and her team have lost. A recent investigation by the East Bay Express found that Parkers’ office lost or settled cases that have cost the City $26,478,638 in approximately 117 lawsuits against the City, not including a recent $12 million judgment in a recent police incident.

City Attorney Barbara Parker

“It is clear that City Attorney Parker and her staff have failed to perform their duties and that change is needed,” said Dan Siegel, lead attorney of the firm Siegel, Yee & Brunner in Oakland. Siegel told the Post that he conducted research, interviews and “went through the entire record of the (Brooks vs. Brown) trial—the transcript and the documents that each side filed.”

“The job done by the City Attorney’s office was clearly inadequate…and led to the result that we saw,” he said.

“Our findings make the case that City Attorney Barbara Parker and her staff, through a pattern of negligence, poor preparation, and/or lack of competence, caused an unjustified award of significant money damages against the City of Oakland and grave harm to her reputation and emotional stress to Desley Brooks, councilmember and client of the City Attorney’s office,” said Siegel in a media release.

The case of Elaine Brown v. City of Oakland and Desley Brooks was based on an incident that took place between Brooks and Brown on Oct. 30, 2015 at an Oakland restaurant in Jack London Square. The jury found that Brooks had assaulted Brown by pushing her to the floor.

Elaine Brown is a former Black Panther and currently a nonprofit real estate developer.

However, this claim alleges that the jurors could have come to a different conclusion had City Attorney Parker conducted a stronger case.

The record shows, according to the claim, that the performance of City Attorney Barbara Parker’s staff led to the verdicts against the City of Oakland and Brooks, through “professional negligence, repeated failure to object to improper evidence, and inability to present a strong case.”

According to the claim, evidence shows that:

“Brooks acted in reasonable self-defense to protect herself from Elaine Brown.”
“Brown’s history of threats and violence demonstrated that she was the aggressor in the physical confrontation with Brooks.”
“Brown’s (action) in retrieving a weapon from her car to continue the confrontation with Brooks shows she was not injured.”
Complete medical evidence was not admitted.

Brooks in an April 25, 2016 statement said that Brown “poked her several times in the chest” “before Brooks pushed Brown away, resulting in her falling over and injuring herself.

Brooks’ statements were corroborated by the testimony of another eyewitness, the claim said.

Attorneys for the City also failed to present evidence of Brown’s use of alcohol on the date of the incident or evidence of the “threatening and abuse language she used against Ms. Brooks, including a threat by Brown to “kick her ‘m** f** ass,’” according to the claim.

Further, the claim said that Brown “went to her car to get a pipe after Ms. Brooks pushed her, saying “I’m going to get that b***.”

Contacted by the Post, Alex Katz, spokesman for City Attorney Parker, replied in an emailed statement.

“Frankly, we are very surprised to receive this claim from Desley Brooks given this office’s professional and diligent defense in this case,” he said.

Recently, the City Attorney’s Office also lost the high profile Bulk Terminal Coal case and a major motion in the Ghostship case that could lead to millions of dollars in debt to the City.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

Published

2 days ago

May 26, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 - 30, 2023

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Activism

Rise in Abductions of Black Girls in Oakland Alarms Sex-Trafficking Survivors

Nola Brantley of Nola Brantley Speaks states, “America’s wider culture and society has consistently failed to address the abduction and kidnapping of Black girls in Oakland and across the country, and this lack of concern empowers and emboldens predators.”

Published

1 week ago

May 20, 2023

Oakland Post

Nola Brantley and Sarai Smith-Mazariegos

By Tanya Dennis

Within the last 30 days there have been seven attempted kidnappings or successful abductions of Black girls in Oakland.

Survivors of human trafficking who are now advocates are not surprised.

Nor were they surprised that the police didn’t respond, and parents of victims turned to African American community-based organizations like Adamika Village and Love Never Fails for help.

Advocates say Black and Brown girls disappear daily, usually without a blip on the screen for society and government officials.

Perhaps that will change with a proposed law by state Senator Steven Bradford’s Senate Bill 673 Ebony Alert, that, if passed, will alert people when Black people under the age of 26 go missing.

According to the bill, Black children are disproportionately classified as “runaways” in comparison to their white counterparts which means fewer resources are dedicated to finding them.

Brantley, a survivor of human trafficking has been doing the work to support child sex trafficking victims for over 20 years, first as the director for the Scotlan Youth and Family Center’s Parenting and Youth Enrichment Department at Oakland’s DeFremery Park, and as one of the co-founders and executive director of Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSSEY, Inc.)

“It really hit home in 2010,” said Brantley, “before California’s Welfare Institution Code 300 was amended to include children victimized by sex trafficking.”

Before that law was amended, she had to vehemently advocate for Black and Brown girls under the age of 18 to be treated as victims rather than criminalized.

Brantley served hundreds of Black and Brown girls citing these girls were victims so they would be treated as such and offered restorative services. “To get the police to take their disappearances seriously and file a report almost never happened,” she said.

Then Brantley received a call from the Board of Supervisors regarding a “special case.” A councilman was at the meeting, as well as a member of former Alameda County Board Supervisor Scott Haggerty’s Office who had called Brantley to attend.

“The child’s parents and the child were there also. They requested that I give my full attention to this case. The girl was white and there was no question of her victimization,” Brantley said.

Brantley felt conflicted that of all the hundreds of Black and Brown girls she’d served, none had ever received this type of treatment.

Her eyes were opened that day on how “they” move, therefore with the recent escalation of kidnapping attempts of Black girls, Brantley fears that because it’s happening to Black girls the response will not be taken seriously.

Councilwoman Treva Reid

“I thank Councilwoman Treva Reid and Senator Steven Bradford (D) for pushing for the passing of the Ebony Alert Bill across the state so that the disappearance of Black girls will be elevated the same as white girls. We’ve never had a time when Black girls weren’t missing. Before, it didn’t matter if we reported it or if the parents reported the police failed to care.”

Senator Steven Bradford

Sarai S-Mazariegos, co-founder of M.I.S.S.S.E.Y, and founder and executive director of Survivors Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment (S.H.A.D.E.) agrees with Brantley.

“What we are experiencing is the effects of COVID-19, poverty and a regressive law that has sentence the most vulnerable to the sex trade,” S-Mazariegos said. “We are seeing the lack of equity in the community, the cause and consequence of gender inequality and a violation of our basic human rights. What we are seeing is sexual exploitation at its finest.”

Both advocates are encouraged by Bradford’s Ebony Alert.

The racism and inequity cited has resulted in the development of an underground support system by Brantley, S-Mazariegos and other community-based organizations who have united to demand change.

Thus far they are receiving support from Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and Oakland City Councilmembers Nikki Fortunato Bas and Reid of the second and seventh districts respectively.

For more information, go to http://www.blackandmissinginc.com