Conflict and Loathing Among Signature Gatherers + Battery, Slurs, and Self-Defense
From a decision by L.A. Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller in Legorreta v. Cobham, decided Mar. 10 but just posted on Westlaw last week:
[A]s of … the date of the incident, … [Mr. Legorreta] was about 68 years of age. He was working as a “caller” or petitioner for signatures on state petitions for which he and his nephew would obtain income for each approved signature. He and his nephew [Mr. Proo] set up a booth, table, and chairs in a designated Free Speech area near the exit at the Walmart store located at 1827 Walnut Grove Ave, Rosemead, CA. Legorreta would call out to Walmar[t] customers as they left the store and tried to get them to sign a petition. Proo was the primary petitioner and Legorreta worked for him.
Legorreta states that he and nephew Proo arrived at the Walmart Free-Speech zone on the Walmart site early and that during the day he primarily sat around and solicited signatures by calling out to persons exiting the Walmart store. A rival group of petitioners led by Cobham, appeared at the site and commenced competing with Legorreta and Proo for signatures by attempting to solicit signatures from the same group of persons. The Cobham group did not have a booth or table and did not confine themselves to one area but circulated in and around the exit soliciting signatures including the area adjacent to the location of the Proo/Legorreta booth.
During the day-long signature gathering efforts, stress and tensions arose between the different groups of signature gatherers and it significantly increased with Cobham and Trujillo [a member of his crew] arrived. Legorreta, who identifies as gay, was repeatedly verbally assaulted by Cobham and his group with epithets calling him a “fucking faggot” and a “fucking loser.” Mr. Proo was engaging in criticism of Cobham’s team because of the name calling directed to Legorreta and himself, his perception that the Cobham team was violating the rules of solicitation of signatures by following people into the parking lot, and because Cobham was “stealing signatures.”
The two groups accused each other of signature stealing, that is, getting a Walmart customer who was exiting the store to sign for one but not the other group’s petition. There was no evidence that Legorreta was the aggressor in any of the back-and-forth insults, accusations, and name calling. There is convincing evidence, however, that Legorreta was being insulted and intimidated by the Cobham group.
Toward the evening hours (around 5:45 p.m.) Cobham came up to the table where Legorreta was sitting and shook the table and called him, as he had in a number of prior insults of the same nature, a “fucking faggot.” Proo interpreted this as threatening Legorreta with physical harm. Cobham then left the immediate area. Legorreta then stood up to go inside the Walmart store to complain about Cobham and his crew’s repeated insults and what Legorreta perceived as rude and unfair competition (signature stea
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