Diane | 31.03.2007 02:13

Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, asked a superior court judge yesterday to unseal an affidavit of support for a search warrant executed on his house in connection with the vandalism of three migrant camps. The judge granted the motion, but it may not be the victory Schwilk hoped for.

SAN DIEGO--Jeff Schwilk, founder of the San Diego Minutemen, appeared in criminal court yesterday for a motion hearing with Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser. Schwilk, representing himself, asked that an affidavit of support for a search warrant on his home be unsealed and that his seized property be returned.

Detective Patrick Lenhardt executed the search warrant on March 21, in connection with the vandalism of three migrant camps in the Rancho Penasquitos area in late January.

The affidavit is the lead detective’s official request for a search warrant and statement about why the court should issue the warrant. Normally, this type of affidavit is publicly available within 10 days after a warrant is issued. In this instance, Lenhardt, who submitted the affidavit, said that making it public could compromise an ongoing investigation by providing advance notice to other suspects and witnesses.

But Schwilk argued in court that sealing the affidavit and holding his property violated his First Amendment rights. He claimed he is the communications chair for the American Independent Party (AIP) and that all of the AIP’s membership information was lost when the police seized his computer. He said that the Party could not continue its operations. However, the North County Times reports that Ed Noonan, state chairman of the AIP, said yesterday that he had never heard of Schwilk. This was confirmed by a second source.

Noonan did say that D. Clark was appointed five days ago as AIP’s area chairperson, and it was possible that Clark had just brought Schwilk on as communications chair. The search warrant was executed seven days prior to Scwhilk’s appearance in court yesterday.

According to a press release issued by Clark, who was with Schwilk in the courtroom yesterday, the AIP filed a $31 billion lawsuit—yes, that’s “billion,” with a “b”—against the City of San Diego on March 28, because the Party is “frustrated, closed, shut down, humiliated, slandered, robbed, damaged, and violated.”

The press release also threatens that this and other potential lawsuits “could possibly lower the credit rating of the City, lead to bankruptcy, or more fiscal woes and political problems for the City of San Diego.” The release is dated February 28, 2007.


Affidavit Unsealed

After reviewing the affidavit, Judge Fraser ordered it unsealed. According to the document, Christie Czajkowski, a former Minutewoman who was served with a search warrant in mid-February in connection with the same case, claimed that she met Scwhilk, Stu Hurlburt, Daniel Duffield, Julie Adams, and other men whom she didn’t know in Rancho Penasquitos, near the camps, on January 27.

Czajkowski said that Schwilk was carrying a pair of hedge cutters, reportedly for trimming tree branches in McGonigle Canyon.

Hurlburt, one of the parties Czajkowski identified as being in the area of the migrant camps the day of the vandalism, is a retired professor who had been using his San Diego State University e-mail account to conduct Minutemen business. Hurlburt told Detective Lenhardt that he was not in the area the day the vandalism occurred, but the affidavit also states that Schwilk identified Hurlburt, independently, as being with Schwilk in Rancho Penasquitos that day.

Adams, who was also identified by Czajkowski and later by Schwilk as having been in the canyon near the migrant camps the day of the vandalism, is a resident of Rancho Penasquitos and one of the primary organizers of the November 2006 protest against the migrant camps. According to the affidavit, Adams agreed to speak to the police with her attorney present, but she refused to make a statement after Lenhardt told her she would not be exempt from prosecution.

The affidavit also states that Schwilk named Mike Spencer as being in area of the migrant camps that day. Spencer is the founder of the Vista Citizen’s Brigade, an affiliate of the San Diego Minutemen. He is married to Claudia Spencer, a national spokesperson for “You Don’t Speak for Me,” an anti-immigration organization.

During Schwilk’s hearing, he also requested that all of his property be returned. Judge Fraser ordered the police department to return any property that they (the police) deemed irrelevant to the case. Outside the courtroom, Schwilk claimed victory, saying that the Judge had ordered the immediate return of all his property. He was also pleased that the affidavit had been unsealed.