Three defendants charged for unlawful conduct surrounding protests in San Luis Obispo requested and received court misdemeanor diversion in their cases on Tuesday.
The charges are in relation to a Black Lives Matter protest that took place in San Luis Obispo on July 21, 2020.
Two of the defendants were charged with failing to disperse after being warned to disperse, each received one year of diversion and 20 hours of suspended community service. The third also received one year of diversion, however is required to complete 20 hours of community service since their charge involved resisting or obstructing a peace officer in addition to the failure to disperse.
As a condition of the diversion, all three individuals are required to obey all laws for the period of one year. After successful completion of the CMD, the case will be dismissed and the arrest upon which the diversion program was imposed will be deemed to have never occurred.
Court Misdemeanor Diversion is a new program that was created by the California Legislature in 2020 to divert minor misdemeanor offenses out of court. Assembly Bill 3234 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, 2020.
