In January I met a lawyer who answered to Rico Suave.
His real name was Damon Alimouri, and he represented a member of the so-called Justice 8, who became famous online for confronting people they accused of harassing street vendors, videotaping the rowdy incident and then urging their followers to support the vendors. San Bernardino County prosecutors had charged the eight with a mix of felonies ranging from false imprisonment to conspiracy and assault, and had managed to convince a judge to deny bail to all but one.
In court, Alimouri stood out among his fellow defence lawyers, and not just because of his colourful nickname, coined by admirers who swooned over his tailored suits, glossy pompadour and oratorical skills. His passionate but unpretentious style contrasted with the showboating of some of the other lawyers.
He portrayed the Justice 8 case as a threat to civil liberties, making frequent references to the U.S. Constitution and the Founding Fathers. The son of an Iranian father and a Mexican mother got sheriff's deputies to contradict what they had written in their arrest reports.
His client, Vanessa Carrasco, faced 13 felonies and a maximum of 17 years in prison. Last month, she and six others pleaded guilty to the same single charge: assault with intent to cause great bodily harm. They are out on bail and await sentencing in December, leaving only their leader, Edin Alex Enamorado, to fight his case. (Another defendant’s charges were dropped Tuesday after he agreed to community service and anger management classes.)
“It was a victory for my client,” Alimouri said as we sat in his small Pasadena office last week. On his desk were books by Oscar Wilde and Hegel. Photos on the walls ranged from Emiliano Zapata and Malcolm X to stills from “Goodfellas” and “The Godfather” and mugshots of David Bowie and Mick Jagger. “It’s not the one I wanted, but when all the other charges were dismissed, it’s what we’ll accept.”
He now represents Enamorado, the most prominent member of Justice 8. A political organizer by trade, Enamorado began recording his confrontations with street vendor harassers three years ago, eventually gaining hundreds of thousands of followers on social media but also criticism for direct tactics that included divulging personal information and protesting outside people’s homes and workplaces.
Prosecutors have been especially harsh on the Cudahy native, who rejected an offer to plead guilty to two of the 16 felonies he faces and receive a six-year prison sentence, according to Alimouri.
In court, lead prosecutor Jason Wilkinson described Enamorado and the rest of the Justice 8 as practitioners of “ritualized harassment” and “preconceived vigilantism” for their roles in three incidents: chasing down a security guard who had harassed a street vendor and pepper-spraying him; following a man home after he threw a plastic bottle at them during a protest outside the Pomona Police Department; and beating a driver after he drove his car toward them.
Enamorado has been held without bail at the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto since December.
Activist Edin Alex Enamorado protests outside the Santa Barbara Superior Court in 2023 during the arraignment of Jeanne Umana, a woman accused of using racist language toward Latino men in incidents caught on video.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
Alimouri's appearance was radically different from when we first met at the Victorville courthouse. Wearing a black jacket, shirt and tie, sporting a bushy haircut and a thick, rugged beard, he looked like an MMA fighter ready to attend a Johnny Cash convention.
“I’ve been getting into this whole concept of austerity,” the 33-year-old explained. “A close personal friend died of a drug overdose and I’ve had some personal tragedies since the beginning of this year. And now, this case.”
Enamorado's group approached him last month, looking for a new lawyer.
“I’ve had clients charged with murder, rape, child abuse; they were granted bail,” Alimouri said, the intensity of his voice increasing with each crime he pronounced. [prosecutors] They say they are trying to protect Enamorado's alleged victims. No, they want to make something clear.”
Jacquelyn Rodriguez, public affairs officer for the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, declined an interview request because the case is ongoing.
Alimouri did not want Enamorado to talk to me, “because they will say no to me.” [San Bernardino County prosecutors] “They use everything he says against him. They know that millions of people are paying attention online. Edin is a folk hero and they want to make an example of him.”
The Justice 8’s arrests in December were announced at a news conference, where San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus ridiculed their activism as “money bait” and displayed mugshots on a poster evoking a mob family tree, with Enamorado at the top. Supporters have organized fundraisers, and dozens of people have shown up at the Justice 8’s court hearings.
The case is serving as a closely watched referendum on internet justice, with debate raging on social media. How far can you go when you denounce those who have attacked society's despised? Or is it always justified to defend the defenceless?
“In love is not just in love,” Alimouri continued. “I love him and I respect him, but this is something bigger.”
A native of the San Gabriel Valley, Alimouri majored in philosophy and political science at USC and decided to pursue law school after watching a YouTube video of conservative icon William F. Buckley interviewing famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey.
Bailey “was an advocate for rehabilitation and the right to disclosure,” said Alimouri, who has a framed magazine ad on his office wall showing Bailey promoting Smirnoff vodka. “I thought, ‘This is what I was meant to be. He is calm, personable, assertive and fair.’”
Alimouri's “bleeding heart” comes from his father, who fled Iran after opposing both the shah and the country's Islamic regime and found work in the United States as a driver.
Alimouri had never heard of Enamorado before answering a Facebook call seeking attorneys for the Justice 8 and becoming outraged by the charges. Representing Carrasco pro bono, he soon realized she was “insignificant” to prosecutors in their quest to catch Enamorado.
Damon Alimouri, 33, at his law office in Pasadena.
(Zoe Cranfill/Los Angeles Times)
I told Alimouri that he has an impossible task. Victorville is not exactly George Gascon's territory.
I agreed with him that the case against Enamorado and the eight judges was an overreach by the prosecution, but pointed out that his client was unlikely to receive any clemency. Outside the courthouse is a huge, Pietà-like statue dedicated to officers killed in the line of duty and a wooden replica of the sheriff's first outpost in the city.
In the incidents involving the security guard and the driver, who initiated it was debatable. But the video shows that after following the Pomona man to his home, Enamorado and others surrounded his car, forced him out and then made him kneel and apologize. Someone yelled, “We let you live, buddy!”
“There was no way anyone could watch that video and not feel ashamed,” I told Alimouri. He didn't flinch.
“You said you feel embarrassed. That’s not a crime. This is not a popularity contest. This is not a morality contest. This is a case of legal issues. This is not about whether we feel embarrassed when we watch a certain video or not.”
Enamorado's next pretrial hearing will be July 31. Alimouri plans to file motions to challenge the venue, the charges and whether San Bernardino County has jurisdiction over the Pomona altercations. Enamorado is willing to go to trial to clear his name, and Alimouri is not afraid.
“I have faith in the common people who compose juries,” he said. “That is the beauty of the law. Edin’s fate would be in the hands of generous people, not prosecutors and judges. Jefferson said, “I consider trial by jury to be the only pillar devised by man, by which a government can adhere to the principles of its constitution.”
