Story Published:
Feb 17, 2009 at 5:59 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Feb 17, 2009 at 11:32 PM PDT
After deliberating for one hour, an Alhambra jury returned a verdict Tuesday in the assault trial of Jazmin Eskew: not guilty on all charges.
Shortly before 4 p.m., the five-man, seven-woman jury concluded the trial of Eskew, the 19-year-old daughter of community activist Najee Ali, by exonerating her of the charges of assault with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of an accident.
The charges and the six-day trial stemmed from a July 11, 2007 encounter Eskew had with four middle-aged, Caucasian and Latino motorcyclists on the San Bernardino (10) Freeway.
The district attorney maintained that Eskew deliberately tried to assault a swarm of Harley Davidson-riding cyclists that included Kevin Vierden, 47; Richard Munford, 38; William Green, 54 and Christopher Chavez, 43. All four are felons and Green is a convicted child molester.
The defense attorney, Anthony Willoughby, proved that Eskew was the victim in this case who was surrounded, harassed, subjected to racist and sexist epithets and chased on the freeway by the four men and that she merely clipped one of their motorcycles in an attempt to flee her tormentors.
Willoughby used the testimony of an accident reconstruction expert to prove his point.
The jury that acquitted Eskew was composed of four whites, four Asians, three Hispanics and one Black and it took them only an hour to reach their verdict.
“All these people came in and testified to something that was physically impossible, and the jury saw through that, even though the ‘Uncle Tom’ judge [Judge David Milton] gave the jury instructions that were biased against me personally,” Willoughby said.
Eskew’s father is serving a prison term after pleading guilty to trying to bribe a witness in his daughter’s case. “Najee is in prison for nothing,” Willoughby said. “Najee didn’t have to do whatever they say he did and if they lied about Najee the way they came in here and lied about his daughter, I’m sure he didn’t do it.”
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