Lawyers say women in Santa Rosa vandalism case were falsely accused

A famous civil rights attorney who’s litigated some of California’s most high-profile cases will represent one of three Santa Rosa women suspected of vandalizing the former home of an ex-Santa Rosa Police officer who testified in support of the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd.

The women, Amber Lucas, 35, Rowan Dalbey, 20, and Kristen Aumoithe, 34, were booked into the Sonoma County Jail on May 11 on suspicion of felony conspiracy to commit a crime and felony vandalism linked to the smearing of animal blood on the ex-officer’s former home and on a downtown sculpture.

San Francisco attorney Tony Serra will represent Dalbey, according to a news release from the three women’s attorneys. Serra’s past clients include Huey Newton, the Black Panther leader who was acquitted of murdering an Oakland Police officer in 1967; Chinatown gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow; and one of the defendants in the 2016 Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse fire. Serra’s clients have also included North Coast environmental activist Judi Bari, who sued the FBI over its handling of the bombing of her car in 1990, as well as members of the Hells Angels and Symbionese Liberation Army.

Attorney Vincent Barrientos, one of the attorneys for a second defendant in the Ghost Ship fire case, will represent Aumoithe.

Lucas, a local social media wine and lifestyle influencer, has retained Sonoma County attorneys Lauren Mendelsohn and Omar Figueroa.

All three women have participated in local Black Lives Matter protests seeking reforms among local law enforcement.

The news release, emailed to The Press Democrat Thursday afternoon, said the activists were falsely accused in the case.

“These Black Lives Matter activists are innocent of the bogus charges for which they were arrested: leaving blood and a pig’s head at the former residence of Derek Chauvin’s expert,” Barrientos said.

In a statement sent to the San Francisco Chronicle for an article published Friday, Lucas said she had been “falsely accused,” adding that the allegations against her are “not me, or what I stand for.”

“As a community leader, what I am enduring are the very actions that I stand and speak against, and actively denounce: the targeting of women of color, the abuse of power from law enforcement, and the attempt to silence voices of advocacy and truth. I am aware that I am on trial in two courts — including the one of public opinion. I understand this is an attempt to silence, and discredit me within my community, and nationwide,” the statement said.

Reached by phone Friday, Lucas declined to elaborate on her statement and referred questions to Mendelsohn and Figueroa. The lawyers did not respond to a phone call to their office seeking comment Friday evening.

Community tips and the collection of additional evidence supported the Santa Rosa Police Department’s decision to arrest the three women in the vandalism case, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Chris Mahurin, a department spokesman.

The department announced they were searching for additional suspects in the vandalism a day after the women were arrested, though no additional arrests had been made as of Thursday, Mahurin said.

Detectives forwarded investigative reports in the case to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office either on Wednesday or Thursday, he added.

Mahurin declined to provide additional details about what role investigators believe each women played in the crimes because releasing that information as additional suspects are outstanding could jeopardize the case, he said.

No criminal charges had been filed at the Sonoma County Superior Court for any of the women involved in the criminal case as of Thursday afternoon, the court’s online records showed.

The women’s arrests were connected to the April 17 vandalism of a west Santa Rosa home, in which police were told a group of people dressed in black clothing splattered blood on the front of the home and left a pig’s head on the front porch, police said.

The home used to be the residence of Barry Brodd, the ex-Santa Rosa cop turned police use-of-force consultant who testified that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was reasonable in how he restrained George Floyd.

Less than an hour after the house was vandalized, the “Agraria” hand sculpture outside the Santa Rosa Plaza was found covered in animal blood.

Chauvin, who was later convicted of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death, knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd said “I can’t breathe” before going unresponsive and dying.

Police suspect the group behind the vandalism had targeted the home because of Brodd’s testimony in the trail.

Santa Rosa Police Chief Ray Navarro has said Brodd’s expert testimony did not reflect the values of his department.

Brodd also taught aspiring police officers at the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Public Safety Center between 1973 to 2013.

A GoFundMe fundraiser to help the women cover legal fees and replace phones and laptops seized by police had garnered just over $5,700 as of Thursday afternoon.

Reached by phone on Thursday, Figueroa declined to explain why he and the attorneys representing the women in the case say the group was falsely accused by police.

He declined to explain a reference made in the news release to an “agent provocateur” who may have been involved in the case, saying that it was too early to comment on those details.

“We don’t have to prove anything,” Figueroa said. “The prosecution is the one that carries the burden of proof.”

The women are due in court in early August, he added.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated to include a statement from Lucas about the allegations against her in the vandalism case that was shared with The San Francisco Chronicle.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.