Judge orders mental tests of BLM protesters suing Jackie Lacey
Three Black Lives Matter demonstrators confronted at gunpoint by former District Attorney Jackie Lacey's late husband outside their family home, will have to undergo independent mental evaluations following their claims of psychological damage from the 2020 encounter.
A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ordered each plaintiff, Melina Abdullah, Dahlia Ferlito and Justin Marks, to undergo a single, full-day examination with specific tests to be performed. In a separate ruling, the judge also directed the plaintiffs' attorneys to comply with a Jan. 19 court order that directs Marks and Abdullah to sign waivers so their records from sessions with a therapist can be reviewed by Lacey's lawyers.
The confrontation occurred when members of the BLM group showed up at the couple's Granada Hills residence on the morning of March 2, 2020. The plaintiffs went to the Laceys' home seeking to confront her for allegedly refusing to meet with them.
Lacey's husband, David Lacey, opened the door after the plaintiffs rang the bell. Video images show him pointing a gun and saying he would shoot if the visitors did not get off his porch. David Lacey died Sept. 5.
Abdullah and other activists criticized Lacey for not prosecuting some law enforcement officers involved in fatal on-duty shootings during her two terms in office.
For several years, protesters, including BLM members, gathered weekly outside the Hall of Justice, where Lacey's office was located, holding signs, using noise amplifiers and drums while chanting slogans such as, "Bye, Jackie" and "Jackie Lacey Must Go."
Abdullah is a professor and former chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State Los Angeles and a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter.
The 2020 encounter at the Lacey home occurred a day before Lacey, now 66 years old and the first woman and first Black prosecutor to hold the top post since the office was created in 1850, was forced into a runoff with former San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascon, who ultimately won the election.
Since this incident, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits protestor demonstrations of any size, within 300 feet of a targeted private residence.
The council argued in 2021 that if the community wants to protest certain elected officials or their policies, they should do so at their offices, not their homes.
Prior to this law, there was one in place that prohibited targeted residential picketing within 100 feet.
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