Let’s take a moment to examine a now-notorious arrest that occurred at a private home, and made headlines around the country — no, not Henry Louis Gates, but the fundraiser for Democratic House candidate Francine Busby (CA-50), which was raided by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department several weeks ago.
You may recall that attendees at this house party said a heckler shouted anti-gay slurs over a fence, and about an hour later a deputy paid a less than friendly visit to the event, saying that a noise complaint had been made about a Democratic rally. One thing led to another, and a bunch of middle-aged Dems got pepper-sprayed, and a full back-up of officers came — including dogs and a helicopter.
I checked in with Busby today for the latest news, and she walked me through how the county district attorney’s office had taken over the investigation. “They’ve been very diligent about contacting all of the guests who attended, not just those who were there later,” Busby told me. “And the feeling I’m getting back from people is that they’re handling it very professionally, and people have been very comfortable with the procedures.”
A campaign consultant for Busby, who spoke with the district attorney’s office by phone this morning, said it was a very straightforward interview, in what is clearly a thorough process: “He was just gathering info, he didn’t drill down into anything really about what I had to say. He was just gathering another account of what I saw. He said he had interviewed about 40 people, so I said that means you interviewed a lot more people than were there. He said, no, we also interviewed a lot of neighbors.”
And along the way, the consultant said, something very interesting came up about that heckler.
The consultant said that the heckler shouted, “F— you you f—ing Democrats. F— you, you f—ing loser,” and made a threat about shutting down the event. The consultant did not specifically hear anti-gay slurs, but was also unable to clearly hear the whole thing and believes that this did occur based on other people’s recollections.
When the Sheriff’s Department deputy said that he had come because of a noise complaint, the consultant clearly suspected that the heckler was responsible. But at this point in recounting the story, the district attorney’s investigator said that the person who made the complaint, who has not been publicly identified, not only denied being the heckler — but said they’d not heard any heckler at all.
“It seems unlikely,” the consultant told me. “I just don’t know, it seems more likely that the heckler and the noise complaint person either are the same person, or know each other.”
