|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Mountain View police arrested a Southern California YouTuber for blasting pepper spray at a man outside Mountain View’s Costco, an alleged assault that police say was motivated by the YouTuber’s financial interest and desire for views.
The man who was injured now intends to file a lawsuit against the YouTuber, alleging that he has suffered vision loss for over a week.
Police say Northridge resident Richard Maza, 51, sprayed the victim on March 28 to attract views for his YouTube channel, “Freedom of the Press.” Maza describes himself as a “First Amendment auditor,” part of a movement whose members film people in public and post the resulting confrontations online.
While the First Amendment generally allows filming in public places where people don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy, a police report obtained by this news organization says Maza deliberately provoked people so he could claim self-defense.
Mountain View officers received at least four calls before the alleged assault occurred at around 2 p.m., reporting a group of auditors, including Maza, outside the Costco at 1000 N. Rengstorff Ave. The other auditors were identified as Canadian YouTuber Richard Troyan, who runs True North Transparency, and Conrad Rankin and his son Nick Rankin, who post under iiMPACT MEDIA.
The department did not arrest the group after these initial calls. Even though the Costco parking lot is private property, the California Supreme Court has previously ruled that “reasonably exercised” First Amendment-protected activity is allowed in shopping centers.
The man who was pepper sprayed told officers he was loading groceries into his car when he asked the group why they were filming, according to the police report. After he suggested they “find something better to do,” the group began mocking and insulting him. The victim told police he “flinched” in an attempt to get them to back off, which the group then claimed was assault.
The man told police he began walking away because he feared he might be attacked. When he got into his car, Maza held his camera inside the vehicle. The victim said he struck the camera away in fear, and Maza responded by spraying him with pepper spray, police said.
Although the victim declined medical attention at the scene, his attorney later said he suffered vision impairment that might be permanent. The man told police the next day that his vision was “like looking through crumpled Saran Wrap,” the report said. He was diagnosed with a corneal abrasion, prescribed antibiotics, and he said he was in pain and unable to sleep.
Redwood City attorney Andrew Watters, who is suing Troyan over a separate incident in which he personally saw auditors at Draeger’s Market in Menlo Park, said his client experienced 80% vision loss for 10 days and continues to have 40% vision loss.
On March 29, the day after Watters’ client was pepper-sprayed in Mountain View and while Maza was still in jail, Troyan pepper-sprayed a man in Menlo Park. The Menlo Park Police Department is investigating whether a crime occurred.
Mountain View police said Maza and his group appeared motivated by views and engagement rather than genuine fear. Mountain View police officer Andrew Wong wrote that videos on Maza’s YouTube channel showing people being pepper-sprayed drew triple the views of other clips. According to Wong, Maza mocked his victims on social media, behavior Wong said was “not typical of victims who are truly defending themselves.”
“Maza and his group were not merely filming people; they were saying things in an attempt to get them angry by using personal attacks,” Wong wrote in his report. “It appears that they were being so confrontational with people in an attempt to get people angry enough to cause them to attack the group.”
Video of the Costco altercation shows Maza chasing the victim’s vehicle and, after the victim pushed his camera away, waiting until the camera was level with the victim’s face before spraying him, according to the police report.
“(The victim) was confined to his vehicle and made no gesture to suggest he was going to get out of his car. Had Maza felt legitimately threatened, he could have simply walked away in any direction,” Wong wrote.
When Maza was arrested, he had three canisters of pepper spray on him. Police later impounded Maza’s vehicle and requested a search warrant to look for evidence of a premeditated attack, the report said. Court staff did not have a record of that search warrant as of April 7, which may mean it is still pending.
Maza was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and use of tear gas, both felonies. After his arraignment on April 2, Maza was released without needing to post bail and was ordered to stay at least 50 yards away from Costco on Rengstorff Avenue.
“It appears Maza’s actions were not only not a legitimate attempt of self defense, but he, along with the rest of his group, was actively seeking to create a circumstance in which he could justify using pepper spray,” Wong wrote.
Attorney Watters said he plans to sue Maza for racketeering and injury over the Mountain View incident, alleging his client may be unable to work if his vision loss turns out to be permanent. Damages could exceed $1 million, and Watters said the suit could be filed as soon as Friday.
The next hearing in Maza’s criminal case is scheduled for May 19 in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
In Watters’ separate civil case against Troyan and other auditors over their actions in Menlo Park, Federal District Judge Noël Wise denied Watters’ request for a temporary restraining order without a hearing, saying the complaint does not show immediate harm requiring urgent intervention while the suit proceeds. Watters has since appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Regardless of the outcome, his civil case will move forward.
Not news to anyone that these “First Amendment auditors” exist solely for the purpose to create trouble and make money from it.
I hope that Maza and his fellow ‘auditors’ get sued and are found guilty and are punished enough to bankrupt them and keep them off the streets.
Kudos to the local police for helping with this !!!
Throw the book at them. They claim law and order, let’s see the law applied to their antics.