3 OC Band Members To Face The Music For 101 Freeway Stunt
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Three members of an Orange County band who performed on top of a truck on the Hollywood (101) Freeway and caused a massive traffic jam last October were told Thursday that they are going to face the music. Literally.
The were ordered today to stand trial on three charges.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samuel Mayerson found sufficient evidence to require Christopher Roy Wright, 33, David Paul Hale, 31, and Keith R. Yackey, 32, to stand trial on one felony count of conspiracy and one misdemeanor count each of public nuisance and false imprisonment.
The judge dismissed two other misdemeanor counts alleging that the trio resisted, obstructed or delayed Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol officers.
Los Angeles police Sgt. Salvador Ogaz testified that he drove onto the freeway after seeing a number of people on an overpass with cell phones, thensaw three people on top of the large truck on the freeway near Sunset Boulevard just after 10:30 a.m. last Oct. 12 and heard singing and instruments being played.
"I observed traffic had been stopped, pretty much all lanes, except the No. 4 lane," the sergeant testified. "I saw one of the individuals holding a microphone or using a microphone. It was very loud."
The men came down from the truck shortly after the Los Angeles City Fire Department brought a ladder and put it on one of the sides of the vehicle, the sergeant said.
"The traffic was stopped for miles, at least a mile for sure. We were there for a long time," Ogaz testified.
California Highway Patrol Officer Dean Jacobs testified that he saw one LAPD officer standing on the hood of the truck while telling the musicians to get off the vehicle.
"They were still playing their music," the CHP officer said.
Jacobs testified that he could not find the keys for the vehicle, which eventually had to be towed away by a big-rig tow truck.
The vehicle -- which had been parked across three of the four southbound lanes of the freeway -- had been equipped with a speaker, amplifier and barbed wire and included photos of the band members, according to the CHP officer.
Defense attorney Roger Rosen, who represents all three men, told the judge that his clients didn't even acknowledge that they heard the officers' orders to get down off the vehicle and that they were "totally compliant" once the Fire Department arrived with a ladder.
When the three were charged last Nov. 30, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said it was a "well-orchestrated commercial stunt perpetrated by these defendants and their accomplices with no concern for the lives or well-being of thousands of innocent victims who were caught up in the prank."
The three -- who are due back at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse for arraignment July 14 -- belong to a group called The Imperial Stars, a self- described "hard core hip hop band," which has a song called "Traffic Jam 101."
Related Link: Band Pleads Not Guilty To Criminal Charge
Related Link: Band Arrested For Blocking 101 To Perform
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