Jackie Lacey had been targeted by Black Lives Matter activists.
(Editor’s note: reprinted with permission in conjunction with Westside Current. The story first appeared on that news site December 15.)
Between 30 and 40 Black Lives Matter members, including co-founder Melina Abdullah, went to Jackie and David Lacey’s private resident in Granada Hills, at 5:40 a.m. in March 2020.
While Jackie Lacey, who was the LA County District Attorney (2012 to 2020), was calling for help, her husband David 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 was charged by the California Attorney General’s Office with three misdemeanor counts of assault with a firearm, but in May 2021 a San Fernando Superior Court Judge David Stuart allowed him to enter an 18-month diversion program to resolve the case, noting that he was a “67-year-old man who has led an otherwise exemplary, productive life.” In May of this year, the misdemeanor charges were dismissed against Lacey.
David died September 5, and now BLM attorneys filed on December 14 to substitute the estate of Lacey’s husband as a defendant. BLM attorneys want a judge to order a second deposition of Lacey and not allow her to withhold information based on the spousal communication privilege.
BLM attorneys say that Jackie and David Lacey were aware that the demonstrators were there to confront Lacey and not her husband.
They say that Jackie Lacey also knew, or should have known, that confronting uninvited guests at her front door with a loaded firearm was unlawful, the BLM lawyers contend in court papers.
Those attorneys, in filings compare the situation facing the Laceys to random home visits by Jehovah Witnesses. (Editor’s note: Jehovah Witnesses have only just restarted their door-to-door ministry after more than two and a half years on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. And Jehovah Witnesses rarely ring the bell before dawn.)
Lacey came under fire from BLM, Melania Abdullah and other activists for declining to prosecute law enforcement officers involved in fatal on-duty shootings during her two terms in office.
For several years, protesters, including members of Black Lives Matter, gathered sometimes in the hundreds outside the Hall of Justice, where Lacey’s office was located, every Wednesday to protest against Lacey, she says, adding they came with signs, noise-amplifiers and drums and chanted slogans such as, “Bye, Jackie” and “Jackie Lacey Must Go.”