Again in January, I met a lawyer who answered to Rico Suave.
His actual identify was Damon Alimouri, and he was representing a member of the so-called Justice 8, internet-famous for confronting individuals they accused of harassing avenue distributors, videotaping the loud aftermath, then calling on followers to assist the distributors. San Bernardino County prosecutors had charged the eight with a potpourri of felonies starting from false imprisonment to conspiracy to assault and had efficiently satisfied a choose to disclaim bail to all however one.
In court docket, Alimouri stood out from his fellow protection attorneys, and never only for his colourful nickname, coined by followers who swooned over his tailor-made fits, shiny pompadour and oratorical expertise. His passionate but unpretentious type contrasted with the showboating of a few of the different attorneys.
He framed the Justice 8 case as a hazard to civil liberties, continuously referencing the U.S. Structure and the Founding Fathers. The son of an Iranian father and Mexican mom acquired sheriff’s deputies to contradict what they’d written down of their arrest reviews.
His consumer, Vanessa Carrasco, confronted 13 felonies and a most of 17 years in jail. Final month, she and 6 others pleaded responsible to the identical single cost — assault with intent to commit nice bodily hurt. They’re free on bail and await sentencing in December, leaving solely their chief, Edin Alex Enamorado, combating his case. (One other defendant’s expenses have been dropped Tuesday after he agreed to neighborhood service and anger administration programs.)
“It was a victory for my consumer,” Alimouri stated as we sat in his small Pasadena workplace final week. On his desk have been books by Oscar Wilde and Hegel. Pictures on the partitions ranged from Emiliano Zapata and Malcolm X to stills from “Goodfellas” and “The Godfather” to police mugshots of David Bowie and Mick Jagger. “Not the one I needed, however when all the opposite expenses have been dismissed, it’s what we’ll take.”
Now, he represents Enamorado, the Justice 8’s most high-profile member. A political organizer by commerce, Enamorado started taping his showdowns with avenue vendor harassers three years in the past, ultimately incomes a whole lot of 1000’s of followers on social media but in addition critics for in-your-face techniques that included doxxing and protests outdoors individuals’s properties and workplaces.
Prosecutors have been particularly laborious on the Cudahy native, who rejected a proposal to plead responsible to 2 felonies, down from the 16 he faces, and obtain a six-year jail sentence, in response to Alimouri.
In court docket, lead prosecutor Jason Wilkinson described Enamorado and the remainder of the Justice 8 as training “ritualized harassment” and “preconceived vigilantism” for his or her roles in three incidents: chasing down a safety guard who had harassed a avenue vendor and pepper-spraying him; following a person house after he threw a plastic bottle at them throughout a protest outdoors the Pomona Police Division; and beating a driver after he inched towards them along with his automobile.
Enamorado has remained jailed with out bail on the Excessive Desert Detention Middle in Adelanto since December.
Activist Edin Alex Enamorado protests outdoors of Santa Barbara Superior Court docket in 2023 throughout the arraignment of Jeanne Umana, a girl accused of utilizing racist language to Latino males in incidents caught on video.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Instances)
Alimouri’s look was radically totally different from once we first met on the Victorville courthouse. In a black jacket, shirt and tie, sporting a bushy haircut and a full, wiry beard, he regarded like an MMA fighter able to attend a Johnny Money conference.
“I’ve been stepping into that entire idea of austerity,” the 33-year-old defined. “A detailed private buddy died of a drug overdose, and I’ve had some private tragedies for the reason that starting of this yr. And now, this case.”
Enamorado’s camp approached him final month, searching for a brand new lawyer.
“I’ve had shoppers charged with homicide, rape, youngster molestation — they acquired bail,” Alimouri stated, the depth in his voice ratcheting up with each crime he uttered. “They [prosecutors] say they’re making an attempt to guard Enamorado’s alleged victims. No, they wish to make some extent.”
Jacquelyn Rodriguez, public affairs officer for the San Bernardino County district lawyer’s workplace, declined an interview request, for the reason that case is ongoing.
Alimouri didn’t need Enamorado to speak to me, “as a result of they’ll [San Bernardino County prosecutors] use something he tells you towards him. They know that tens of millions of individuals are paying consideration on-line. Edin is a folks hero, and so they wish to make an instance out of him.”
The arrests of the Justice 8 in December have been introduced in a information convention, with San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus ridiculing their activism as “clickbait for money” and exhibiting off mugshots on a poster board meant to evoke a Mafia household tree, with Enamorado on the high. Supporters have held fundraisers, and dozens have confirmed up at Justice 8 court docket hearings.
The case is serving as a carefully watched referendum on web justice, with fierce debates taking part in out on social media. How far is just too far when calling out individuals who have attacked the scorned of society? Or is defending the defenseless at all times justified?
“Enamorado is not only Enamorado,” Alimouri continued. “I really like and respect him, however this can be a increased factor.”
A San Gabriel Valley native, Alimouri majored in philosophy and political science at USC, deciding to review regulation after seeing a YouTube video of conservative icon William F. Buckley interviewing famed protection lawyer F. Lee Bailey.
Bailey “was advocating for rehabilitation and the precise to discovery,” stated Alimouri, who has a framed journal advert of Bailey shilling for Smirnoff Vodka on his workplace wall. “I assumed, ‘That is what I used to be meant to be. He’s cool, suave, assertive and righteous.’”
Alimouri’s “bleeding coronary heart” got here from his father, who fled Iran after opposing each the shah and the nation’s Islamic regime, discovering work in america as a chauffeur.
Alimouri had by no means heard of Enamorado earlier than answering a Fb name searching for attorneys for the Justice 8 and feeling outraged on the expenses. Representing Carrasco professional bono, he quickly realized that she “was small potatoes” to prosecutors of their zeal to nail Enamorado.
Damon Alimouri,33, in his regulation workplace in Pasadena.
(Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Instances)
I advised Alimouri that he has an unattainable activity. Victorville ain’t precisely George Gascón territory.
I agreed with him that the case towards Enamorado and the Justice 8 was prosecutorial overreach, however I famous that his consumer wasn’t prone to get any mercy. Exterior the courthouse is a large, Pietà-like statue devoted to officers killed within the line of obligation and a picket duplicate of the primary sheriff’s outpost within the metropolis.
Within the incidents involving the safety guard and the motive force, who began what was debatable. However video reveals that after following the Pomona man house, Enamorado and others surrounded his automobile, compelled him out, then made him get on his knees and apologize. Somebody yelled, “We allow you to dwell, homie!”
There was no means anybody might see that video and never cringe, I advised Alimouri. He was unfazed.
“You stated ‘cringe.’ That isn’t against the law. This isn’t a recognition contest. This isn’t a morality match. It is a case of authorized points. It’s not whether or not we cringe once we see a sure video or not.”
Enamorado’s subsequent pretrial listening to is July 31. Alimouri plans to file motions difficult the venue, the fees and whether or not San Bernardino County has jurisdiction over the Pomona altercations. Enamorado is prepared to go to trial to clear his identify — and Alimouri isn’t afraid.
“I place confidence in common people who comprise juries,” he stated. “That’s the great thing about the regulation. Edin’s destiny can be within the fingers of beneficiant people, not prosecutors and judges. Jefferson stated, ‘I contemplate trial by jury as the one anchor but imagined by man, by which a authorities will be held to the ideas of its structure.’”
