Case fees meet cop salaries

Costa Mesa officials have spent nearly $130,000 of taxpayer dollars for legal fees associated with the Orange Coast College student accused of disrupting a City Council meeting.

The expenses stem from the misdemeanor criminal case the city is pursuing against Benito Acosta and the costs of defending against the civil suit the American Civil Liberties Union filed for Acosta, who goes by the name Coyotl Tezcatlipoca.

Costa Mesa spent more than $30,000 prosecuting Acosta only to see its case dismissed because Dan Peelman of Jones and Mayer law firm had not been sworn in. The gaffe outraged some city officials.

“I expressed the fact that if they were going to appeal it that they appeal it on their dime,” said Councilman Eric Bever. “I think its appropriate, and I insisted because there was the potential that there was some culpability on the part of the attorney, and they agreed to take the appeal on their dime.”

The city is appealing the decision at no cost to taxpayers, as Peelman’s law firm is appealing the decision pro bono, he said.

More than $95,000 so far is going toward defending Acosta’s lawsuit, City Attorney Kimberly Barlow confirmed. The lawsuit was filed in March 2006 and was not in response to the criminal charges, his attorney Belinda Escobosa Helzer said. When Orange County announced it was not filing charges, Acosta sued soon after. Costa Mesa decided to take on the criminal case shortly after, protecting itself from a wrongful-arrest lawsuit.

“I wish we could stop the bleeding in the entire situation,” Councilwoman Katrina Foley said Thursday.

“I never expected it to cost that much,” Councilwoman Linda Dixon said Thursday.

“As a citizen I don’t want our tax dollars being spent on $130,000 you could spend on the city paving roads, putting in new park features,” Foley said. “That’s the salary of a police officer with benefits for a year.”

“I think at some point enough is enough,” Dixon said. “I’ve reached that point.”

Costa Mesa’s legal fees grow in the slow-moving suit.

“The fact that this incident has continued for so long is pretty disturbing to me,” Helzer said. “One of the things that has delayed the civil case was that the city chose to pursue this criminal case. The delay has been at the hands of the prosecutor.”

Though the criminal case may delay the civil suit, Helzer said it would take more than a simple apology from officials to end the case. She said amending city ordinances to prevent these incidents would be the start. Barlow said more is at stake than changing city ordinances.

“It’s not really in the city’s hands. They have asked for several million dollars and we’re not going to pay that. If they think we have an open checkbook, they’re mistaken,” Barlow said.