Activist acquitted in fight with day laborers

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff writer

NORTH COUNTY TIMES
September 26, 2007 5:04 PM PDT

A jury has aqcuitted an anti-illegal immigration activist accused of battery and hate crimes in a brawl with day laborers at a makeshift hiring site in Rancho Penasquitos last November.

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

The case highlighted seething tensions between anti-illegal immigration activists and day laborers who for more than a year have confronted one another at hiring sites in North County.

Each side blamed the other for starting the brawl that ended up in the middle of busy Rancho Pensaquitos Boulevard about 11 a.m. Nov. 19.

San Diego Deputy City Attorney Scott Pirrello told jurors during the 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.

During the trial, day laborer Estanislao Gonzales testified that he didn't want his picture taken and tried to leave. He said the sweat shirt he was using to cover his face may have brushed against Monti as he passed him, and that Monti subsequently grabbed his right arm. Gonzales testified that he pulled away and ran, but Monti chased him into the street, knocked him down and beat him.

Monti then battled Gonzales' friends when they came to help, Pirrello said.

But Monti's attorney, Allison Aranda, argued 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.

"It is illogical to accept this theory that Mr. Monti started a fight with nine of them," Aranda said. "By himself?"

-- Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09 ... _26_07.txt