Lawyer notches third December takedown of city attorney

In addition to a pair of settlements already announced this month, the lawyer representing both victors over city attorney Jan Goldsmith's office has declared a victory of his own.

Bryan Pease — whose clients included activist Ray Lutz (arrested for setting up a voter-registration table during 2011's Occupy movement) and members of the Animal Protection and Defense League (who claimed police harassment while protesting the Ringling Brothers' circus) — also faced charges brought by Goldsmith's office.

During the Occupy protests, a court ruled in favor of police who adopted the practice of arresting protesters who laid signs on the ground in Civic Center Plaza downtown.

"Based on that ruling, I began removing illegally posted signs from the Children's Pool Seal Rookery in La Jolla which were encouraging unlawful marine mammal harassment," says Pease, whose actions netted him two petty theft charges, both of which were dropped this week, according to a December 10 statement.

In addition to the city picking up the tab on a $60,000 settlement for Lutz (a private party responsible for initiating the arrest will pay another $45,000), Pease and co-counsel Todd Cardiff will collect $83,718 in legal fees from city coffers for services related to the trio of cases.