LBReport.com thanks Alan Tolkoff who attended the proceeding equipped with a laptop computer that provided us with a corroborating account of a significant portion of courtroom testimony which contributed to this report.
(Dec. 2, 2006) -- In gripping testimony delivered to a hushed courtroom, a 21-year old woman described under oath a terrifying chain of events that she said she and two girlfriends experienced on Halloween night in an upscale Long Beach neighborhood.
In roughly two hours of clearly delivered, composed testimony on December 1, the woman [whose name we will not publish for now since a familymember has separately expressed safety concerns] indicated that she and two of her female friends (both aged 19) were dressed in Halloween night/party attire (she was "Betty Boop") and approached the SE corner of Bixby Rd. and Linden Ave. to visit a neighborhood "haunted house."
She said a crowd had gathered at the SE corner sufficient to fill the sidewalk and spill onto part of an adjacent lawn and street. She testified that as the three women (who are white) approached the haunted house, an African-American male in the crowd, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, yelled at them, "Are you with it?" while grabbing his crotch. The women continued walking and entered the haunted house.
By the time they'd exited, the crowd had grown bigger. The same male (estimated age 17-19) made the same comments again. As the women tried to walk away side by side (northward on Linden from Bixby) they heard voices yelling/shouting at them from the crowd behind them saying "white bitches" (female voices) and "fuck white people" (male and female voices).
The three women were pelted from behind with lemons, small pumpkins and newspapers. Objects impacted her at the back of her head and midback area and were not light blows, she said; they were very hard, like a solid ball hitting her and it hurt a lot. She indicated she believes one pumpkin hit her in the back of her head. She said her two girlfriends were also hit.
A group of approximately 25 people followed the women. They continued shouting "white bitches" (female voices in an angry tone, witness estimates five to seven voices).
One of her friends had turned and told the group "stop throwing things." A loud male voice shouted "I fucking hate white people" and the group surged forward toward her and her friends.
The woman testified that her friend who'd told the crowd to stop throwing things was then pulled backward by her hair and her dress and nearly surrounded by roughly 15 people in a horseshoe style formation (seven people/two deep). The woman testified that she saw a male lift a skateboard and swing it at her friend.
The woman testified that she herself was then separately encircled by a group of about a dozen people (six people/two deep). While surrounded and effectively prevented from leaving, the group delivered kicks to her legs, then punches to the back of her head...and when she turned she was punched in the face. One especially strong facial punch (she attributes to a male due to its strength) popped her cheek bone.
She put up her arms and swung her hands out to try and get people away from her. She dropped and crouched on the ground (in earthquake drop and cover, balled-up fashion) to try and shield herself from the multiple blows, she said.
She saw her friend (who'd told the group to stop throwing things at them and was pulled backward by her hair and dress and had a skateboard swung at her) lying sideways on the ground and being stepped on (by males, she said).
While she [the testifying victim] was crouching on the ground, she was kicked and punched from the front, the sides, the back and front of her head, all sides of her body, she said. She testified that the blows had to have come from more than one person because they were too quick and too many times and in too many places. She said the beating continued for what she estimates was several minutes but doesn't know an exact time.
She said the beating continued until a tall African-American man came up...and began pulling people off her. "Get off," he said.
The beating left her face bloodied, mainly from the nose, with the left side of her face the worst injured, she said. [From a distance in the courtroom audience, the woman's left eye appeared to be irregular, drooping in its eye socket].
As she described the beating, a parent-aged woman in the audience [believed to be a familymember of one of the victims] quietly sobbed and daubed her eyes.
The ten accused juveniles (ages 12-17, nine girls, one boy), facing felony charges of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury (eight of them with hate crime allegations appended), displayed no outward show of emotion that we saw.
The victim testified that police and paramedics arrived. She told them what happened. Police later took her to a parking lot roughly a five minute drive away [for a field show-up]. They asked if she recognized any of the individuals being detained as having been involved in the beatings...coupled with the admonition that she should not identify individuals unless she was certain they had been involved.
The victim sat in the police car as it trained its headlights and rotatable spotlight on detained individuals. She testified that she recognized one person because of her shirt as a person who had attacked her friend. She said she also recognized and picked out other individuals at the field show up, but not all of them, because she wanted to be sure. Of those she picked out, she said that she was sure.
The prosecution asked her about verbiage in one of her written statements which said [paraphrase from statement read], "I think she was [one] who attacked [her friend.]" She said she wrote "I think" because officers told her to be absolutely certain...and while she was sure that the individual was present and part of the attack on her friend, she couldn't be sure if the individual did punching or kicking.
Testimony is scheduled to resume on Monday, Dec. 4.
