Thread: CIVIL SUIT AGAINST JOHN MATTHEW MONTI

Activist involved in scuffle with day laborers faces civil suit

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

An anti-illegal immigration activist who was recently acquitted of assault stemming from a brawl in Rancho Penasquitos now faces allegations of battery and defamation in a civil lawsuit stemming from the incident last year.

John Matthew Monti, 36, was cleared Sept. 26 on all charges, including three battery counts, three hate-crime counts and one count of filing a false police report.

An attorney for the day laborers said Thursday that a jury in a civil suit may reach a different conclusion.

The burden of proof is lower in a civil suit than in a criminal case, said Daniel Gilleon, a San Diego attorney representing the day laborers.

Reached Thursday afternoon, Monti's attorney, Allison Aranda, responded to a request for comment by saying someone would call the North County Times about the story. By the evening, no call was received.

At the end of the criminal case against him, Monti said immigrant rights activists had orchestrated the case against him, calling it a "hatchet job." During the trial, each side blamed the other for starting the brawl that ended up in the middle of busy Rancho Penasquitos Boulevard about 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19.

The civil suit filed in San Diego on Thursday alleges that Monti was the aggressor and that he battered the day laborers. The suit also names Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, a North County-based anti-illegal immigration group, and the Fox News Network, alleging they defamed the workers by publishing false reports.

A message left for Schwilk on Thursday evening was not immediately returned.

Monti allegedly recruited Schwilk and other members of the San Diego Minutemen to hand out copies of a poster with the day laborers' photographs and a caption reading: "Wanted (for) robbery, assault and battery," according to the lawsuit.

The poster with the workers' photographs was shown on the Fox News Network on Nov. 29 with Monti's account of the incident, according to the suit. The broadcast included a caption reading: "Manhunt at the Border," according to the suit.

Gilleon said he asked the network for a retraction in January for falsely portraying the workers as criminals on the run. There has been no retraction, Gilleon said.

In court, Aranda argued to the jury that before the brawl, the day laborers had threatened Monti as he snapped photos, and that the fight started when one of them hit the Los Angeles-area schoolteacher from behind.

San Diego Deputy City Attorney Scott Pirrello told jurors during the weeklong trial that Monti started the fight when he allegedly grabbed one of the laborers and chased him into the street. Monti was at the site to photograph day laborers and people who hired them.

Gilleon said he plans to seek damages in excess of $1 million.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10 ... _11_07.txt

Lawyers will do anything for a buck...

Must be a Ford Foundation funded lawyer trying to make Monti spend more money to defend himself. I think he will have some extra money to spend on this defense though because his lawyers are going after the City of San Diego for knowing the day labores started the fight but prosecuted John instead.