Alameda County DA Drops Charges Against 2 Homeless Men After Video Of Beating By Berkeley 'Hospitality Ambassador' Surfaces
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- After reviewing a video of the incident, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office has dismissed the case against two homeless men who had pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery charges in a confrontation with two Berkeley community ambassadors.
District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said Thursday that the video of the March 19 incident in an alleyway behind a CVS pharmacy at Shattuck Avenue and Bancroft Way, which took place around 7 p.m., "contradicted what we had believed were the facts in the case."
In the video, an ambassador for the Downtown Berkeley Association, identified in court papers as Jeffrey Bailey, can be seen repeatedly punching one of the homeless men, 29-year-old James Cocklereese, as another ambassador, identified as Carmen Francois, stands by.
Bailey and Francois told Berkeley police that Cocklereese and another homeless man, 23-year-old Nathan Swor, had used explicit language, threatened to kill them and assaulted them.
Berkeley police Officer Donovan Edwards said in a probable cause statement that Swor brandished a 6-foot-long pole with a 4-inch blade at its tip, which he described as a deadly weapon, and assaulted Bailey with it.
Based on the report provided by Berkeley police, the District Attorney's Office charged Swor with two counts of misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and two misdemeanor counts of exhibiting a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors charged Cocklereese with one misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace by offensive language, one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of making criminal threats.
Early last week, both homeless men pleaded no contest to a lesser misdemeanor battery charge and were sentenced to probation.
But Drenick said her office decided to drop the case after it received the video of the incident late last Friday and prosecutors had a chance to look at it.
Drenick said that at a hearing on Monday, Cocklereese and Swor withdrew their pleas, the charges were reinstated and then prosecutors moved to dismiss the case and a judge made a factual finding that they were innocent.
Prosecutors are waiting to get an updated report from Berkeley police before deciding whether to file any charges against Bailey and Francois, she said.
After the video surfaced, the Downtown Berkeley Association fired Bailey and suspended Francois pending an investigation into the incident.
John Caner, the merchant group's chief executive, said last Friday, "This is a tragic situation and involved egregious and violent behavior and is contrary to all of our protocols and training.
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