'Bumfights' case has its main counts thrown out

Other charges against producers are reduced
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By Greg Moran - San Diego Union Tribune - January 16, 2003

EL CAJON, CA – A judge ruled yesterday there was insufficient
evidence to support the most serious criminal charges against the
producers of the infamous "Bumfights" video.

Superior Court Judge Larrie Brainard also reduced the remaining
charges to misdemeanors. He ordered the four defendants to stand
trial on one charge of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight and
three of them to stand trial on the charge of conspiracy to
commit a battery.

Brainard cited the clean criminal records of the four men and
said it would be unlikely that they would be sent to state prison
even if they were convicted of a felony.

That reduces any potential sentence to one year maximum on each
charge. Such a sentence would be served in a local jail, not a
state prison.

Though he found little legal evidence to support most of the
charges, Brainard upbraided the four producers. He said there was
"something abhorrent and morally repugnant in finding joy and
profit" through demeaning other human beings – especially
homeless alcoholics.

The four defendants – Ryan McPherson, 19, Zachary Bubeck, Michael
Slyman, 21, and Daniel Tanner, 21, – will be back in court Feb.
5. It is possible that prosecutors and defense lawyers could
settle the case then.

The judge's ruling concluded the fifth day of a preliminary
hearing in which the circumstances surrounding the tape took
center stage. The video, which producers claim has sold 300,000
copies over the Internet at $20 each, depicts homeless people
fighting and engaging in dangerous stunts.

The main witnesses during the hearing were two homeless men,
Donald Brennan and Rufus Hannah, longtime drinkers and street
residents of La Mesa. Both are featured in the video and its
promotional materials.

Their hard living affected their testimony, which was peppered
with admissions that they did not clearly remember, or frank
acknowledgments that they were intoxicated when the events took
place.

Brainard dismissed charges of felony battery and soliciting a
felony.

In effect, he ruled there was no evidence that showed any of the
four men asked Brennan and Hannah to assault and batter each
other in an incident taped Feb. 2, 2002. On tape, Hannah belted
Brennan, who fell and broke his ankle and leg.

Defense lawyers Thursday showed an outtake from the incident and
two of the producers clearly tell the two men to pose as if they
were fighting, and not to exchange blows.

"That tape refutes the case," said Jan Ronis, the attorney for
McPherson, the main producer of the video who had been making
tapes of Hannah and Brennan since he was a high school student.

The remaining counts have to do with an incident in October 2001
in Ocean Beach. A homeless woman was offered $20 by the producers
to fight someone and she ended up bashing the head of Peter La
Forte into a water fountain, and then they fought for about 30
seconds.

Brainard said it was clear the producers "were out soliciting
people in Ocean Beach to get into fights." Slyman, who was not
present during that incident, was not ordered to stand trial on
that count.

The defense contended that while the tape might be in bad taste,
it was not criminal. Michael Pancer, the attorney who represented
Bubeck, welcomed the ruling.

"This case was an overblown case from the start," he said. "The
judge is now getting it down to a more reasonable size."

Prosecutor Curtis Ross said he was disappointed with the ruling
but said the case was not entirely gutted by Brainard.

"The message is being sent that this type of activity is
illegal," he said outside court. "It still is a crime. The
message is being sent out that what they engaged in, it's still
criminal activity."

Ross had argued that the four targeted Hannah and Brennan because
as alcoholics they could be easily manipulated to perform for the
camera in exchange for a few dollars. He noted that the Web site
advertises "drunk bums beating each other silly."

The four producers still face a civil suit from Hannah and
Brennan.

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Greg Moran: (619) 542-4586; greg.moran@...
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