Army vet who vandalized Fresno police memorial gets probation, community service

Brian David Sumner, the Army veteran convicted of using chalk to deface the Fresno Police Department’s memorial to fallen officers, was sentenced to one year of informal probation and 50 hours of community service on Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court.

“This is an attack on free speech,” Sumner, 26, said as he left the court room. “If soldiers can’t express themselves freely, then no one can.”

Sumner did a tour in Iraq as a combat medic in 2010.

Judge Hilary Chittick told Sumner, a handful of his supporters in the audience and the attorneys a story about her own life before delivering the sentence.

Chittick said she was active politically when she was Sumner’s age, and studied for a year in fascist Spain.

“I saw my friends beaten to death by police in front of me,” she said. “Some of them simply disappeared. No one had a right to free speech or a lawyer.”

“You would do well to look at real cases of fascism and law enforcement running amok,” she added, referencing Sumner’s choice of words on the vandalized memorial.

Chittick told Sumner that she believed his efforts were sincere and well-intentioned, but no one has a right to vandalize.

Last week Sumner was found guilty by a jury of misdemeanor vandalism after only 20 minutes of deliberation. Several jurors told The Bee that the law was clear: Sumner’s act was deliberately and maliciously designed to annoy police, and the property defaced was not his, so they rendered a guilty verdict.

Sumner said the act, committed in June 2014 during a demonstration, was simply an expression of free speech. He considers himself a police accountability journalist, and he’s posted videos of uniformed police officers and written for an online media website, fresnopeoplesmedia.com.

The various points made by each side were the subject of fierce debate on social and conventional media platforms.

The term of informal probation, meaning Sumner won’t be subject to random searches or report to a probation officer, sparked some debate between the defense and prosecution.

Public Defender Samantha Forbes asked for six months, saying Sumner feared retaliation from police. As a vocal member of activist groups, Sumner will frequently be around police. He believes they will look to put him in jail for any reason they can.

Deputy District Attorney Amy Cobb, picked by Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp to handle the highly publicized case, said that Sumner had been convicted of a crime, and the state’s recommendation of two years probation fit that crime. She added that if Sumner wanted to avoid further prosecution, he simply had to not commit any more crimes.

Chittick split the difference and gave Sumner one year of probation. He will also have to pay $200 in various court fees and $50 to the city for the cleanup of the granite memorial, which was not damaged.

“The state only understands force,” Sumner said after the hearing. “They just spent $10,000 on a trial for $50 in damages.”

He said the police could have hosed the memorial off, but instead chose to alert the media and make it a public spectacle.

Sumner said he planned to appeal the conviction and sentence.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Army vet who vandalized Fresno police memorial gets probation, community service."