Politics & Government

Jury To Decide If Businessman Battered Deputies

An Alameda County prosecutor argued that Bal Theatre owner Dan Dillman "has a problem with authority." Dillman's lawyer told jurors it was the deputies who got physical.

 

Opening arguments were heard today in a jury trial to decide whether San Leandro businessman Dan Dillman battered two sherriff's officials and interfered with an investigation they were conducting at his Bal Theatre last October.

Dillman recently filed a charging that the arresting officers -- Sheriff's Department Sgt. Michael D. Carroll and Detective Terrence H. Montigue -- had no cause to handcuff him and throw him to the sidewalk in front of his business while his family watched.

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But today's Superior Court action in Hayward was aimed at two criminal charges: whether Dillman committed battery upon a police officer and impeded an investigation.

Note pads balanced on their knees, a dozen jurors and two alternates listened attentively as prosecutor Scott Ford and defense attorney Sam Ware painted different pictures of what occurred on October 12, 2010 at the Bal.

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Prosector: Dillman "has a problem with authority."

Ford spoke first. He said two sherriff's officials in plain clothes came to the Bal to question a man who had been robbed while trying to buy a gun.

The man was doing sign work at the Bal, so investigators came to the theater.

Ford said they showed their badges and guns to the defendant's wife, Gina Dillman, then took the workman to the front of the theatre to show him a photobook of possible suspects.

But, Ford said, before they could do so, Dan Dillman -- who had been away when the lawmen arrived -- shouted from the front of the Bal: "Who the "F" is in my theatre. Get the "F" out."

From there, Ford painted a picture of the sheriff's men trying to leave the theater to question the victim in their unmarked car, only to be verbally harassed by Dillman, who kept dropping the F-bomb -- which the prosecutor repeated for the benefit of the jury.

Ford said Dillman followed the investigators out to the unmarked car, snapping pictures. He was told several times to stop but did not, so they tried to place him under arrest. Ford said he resisted until the two officers cuffed him, put him on the ground and kneed him once in the thigh and again in the back.

"Mr. Dillman is here for one reason and one reason only," Ford told jurors, "because he has a problem with authority."

Defense: Dillman never touched the 'lawmen' who frightened his family

Defense attorney Sam Ware remined jurors that Dillman was "not charged for using foul language" but for crossing the line and shoving a police officer.

That didn't happen, said Ware, who told jurors that whatever Dillman may have said, he never touched the sheriff's men, even though he was not convinced of their identities at the time.

Instead, Ware said, Dillman let the two men in plainclothes leave the theatre and take the workman into their unmarked car. All he did, Ware said, was snap pictures of the license plate and of each of the two men to record the incident.

It was when Dillman took a picture of Montigue, in the passenger seat, that the trouble began, Ware said.

"Until officer Montigue leapt out of the car at Dan there was no physical contact," Ware told jurors.

The defense attorney told jurors that Gina Dillman would testify that "she was so scared, so uncertain as to who these fellows were that she called 911 and pushed the (theatre's) alarm."

The couple's two teenagers were inside the theatre with Gina Dillman during the incident. Ware said that when they saw the defendant thrown to the ground Gina Dillman locked the door to protect her children.

Ware told the jury that the question before them was "did he (Dillman) commit a battery . . . did he obstruct and delay" an investigation, or was he just trying to make sure that two men claiming to be plainclothes peace officers were who they said they were.

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