Updated 7/23/19: The OC District Attorney has charged Avery Robinson, 35, with 14 separate criminal charges, including 5 felonies. His sister, Andrea Robinson, was charged with 5 misdemeanor counts of assault / battery. Ms. Robinson's husband, Daman Petrie, was additionally charged with a single misdemeanor count of battery. All charges will be prosecuted by the OCDA.
Legal observers are curious to see how the investigation and prosecution(s) will play out after last weekend's Disneyland Brawl. In case you missed it, take a moment, grab some popcorn, turn up your volume, click the link and watch one family turn Toon Town into "The Slappiest Place on Earth".
Now the real fists are about to fly as the OCDA and the Anaheim City Attorney slug it out over who will have jurisdiction to prosecute. First, a little background:
All felonies in Orange County are prosecuted by the District Attorney's Office. The DA is an elected official. The DA also prosecutes ALMOST all of the misdemeanors arising within the county's borders. As one notable exception, though, the City of Anaheim maintains its own local prosecutor. The Anaheim City Attorney is responsible for prosecuting all misdemeanors that occur within the City of Anaheim.
Since the ACA reports to the Anaheim City Council and the Anaheim City Council effectively reports to Disneyland, the Disney Corporation indirectly operates its own prosecutor's office via the Anaheim City Attorney. This arrangement essentially allows Disney's shareholders to call the shots regarding how / if misdemeanors are prosecuted in the City of Anaheim. It's no wonder that the policies and priorities of the Anaheim City Attorney's Office sometimes seem like they're more intended to promote tourism than to promote justice.
The short version is this: if charges are filed as felonies, the cases will be prosecuted by the Orange County's elected DA. If they're filed as misdemeanors, then the cases will be prosecuted by the Disney Corporation via the Anaheim City Attorney's Office.
The video of Sunday's brawl shows a laundry list of violent offenses, including assault, battery, criminal threats, disturbing the peace, child endangerment, and assault by means likely to induce serious injury. Depending on the relationship of the parties, there might also be a variety of domestic violence-related charges. Some of these charges can potentially be filed as felonies. This is where it gets interesting.
I'm sure that the ACA would love to keep this one in-house. If charges are filed as misdemeanors, then Disneyland can call the shots. By aggressively prosecuting the case, the Disney Corporation could reassure potential tourists that the park is safe. They must be eager to save some face, too. Their security should be humiliated by their complete failure to address the situation in the video. The fight lasts almost 4 minutes and 30 seconds. The fact that a bystander recorded the beginning of the fight also suggests that onlookers had some warning that trouble was about to erupt. Disneyland loves to brag that every inch of their park is covered by cameras, but they sure didn't respond to this melee in a timely manner. At some point, security guards appear to officiate the brawl like Mills Lane, but they don't make any serious effort to intervene.
If the case is really going to be prosecuted aggressively, though, the DA must take the lead. Only the DA can bring the kind of felony charges that might carry serious prison sentences. Of course, the DA might not take their marching orders from Disneyland, though. Anaheim's biggest fear is probably that the DA will claim jurisdiction by filing felony charges. After prolonged plea negotiations, the defendants might eventually accept misdemeanor convictions and the ACA will be left completely out of the loop. It would be ironic if the ACA lobbies the DA to reject felony charges, just so that they can file their own misdemeanor charges and "really play hardball".
Stay tuned to see how this plays out. I expect we should see a press release by the Anaheim PD, the OC DA and / or the Anaheim City Attorney within a day or two.
If you or a loved one has questions for a criminal defense attorney in Orange County, call our office for a free consultation. Ask for John. (714) 449-3335.
Thanks for reading.
Orange County Criminal Defense
Outstanding analysis and breakdown
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