• Listen to this segment

GUEST: John Earl, editor of the Orange Coast Voice, B. Kwaku Duren, attorney representing Coyotl Tezcatlipoca

The criminal trial for Costa Mesa immigrant rights activist Coyotl Tezcatlipoca is set to begin on August 15th. Tezcatlipoca is accused of two misdemeanor offenses stemming from a January 2006 Costa Mesa city council meeting. In the incident in question, Mr. Tezcatlipoca addressed his concerns over a plan to integrate city police with immigration agents from the public comments podium. As he asked supporters at the council meeting to stand up in support, Costa Mesa city mayor Alan Mansoor cut him off and called for a recess while having the activist forcefully removed from the meeting. Prior to the confrontation, the then leader of the Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist, similarly asked his supporters to stand – but Mayor Mansoor took no action against Gilchrist. A month after the contentious meeting, Orange Coast Voice publisher Duayne Roberts mockingly addressed the council and asked audience members to stand up for the First Amendment. Mayor Mansoor, again, did not penalize Roberts as he did Tezcatlipoca. The city had twice before tried to prosecute the immigrant rights activist but the Orange County DA’s office declined on both occasions. Should Coyotl Tezcatlipoca be found guilty of “disrupting” a city council meeting, he faces up to six months in prison as well as a one-thousand dollar fine for each charge.