UPDATE: Santa Barbara officials have now dismissed several charges against Jeff Lind "in the interest of justice." Prosecutors on August 11 voided the two misdemeanor charges that remained from this case. Lind still faces more serious charges of filing official documents upsetting to court officials.

        Prosecutors in a neighboring county have filed a flurry of felonies against a San Luis Obispo marketing executive following a December 2010 incident in a Santa Maria courthouse.

         Security cameras in the courtroom foyer recorded a brief discussion between Jeffery Lind, 55, and a Guadalupe police officer. The resulting images -- no sound can be heard -- appear to refute at least some of the allegations now being leveled by the officer and Santa Barbara County district attorney’s deputies. 

         Lind has been charged with resisting arrest; conspiracy; dissuading a witness; attempting, but failing, to commit a crime; and attempting to file a false or forged statement. He’s free on $200,000 bail.

         Lind, managing director of the respected ad agency S. Lombardi and Associates, was at the courthouse to attend a hearing involving his adult son. The elder Lind encountered Officer Robert Ortega, who was sitting on a bench and, according to both men, had the subsequent conversation:

         LIND (walking toward Ortega): “Oh, you’re Ortega.”
         ORTEGA: “Yes, I am.”
         LIND: “You’re the officer who arrested my son. You’re here for court today?”
         ORTEGA: “Oh. You’re Lind’s father.”
         LIND:  “Yes. Thank you for arresting my son.” (In his report, Ortega asserted the comment was made “sarcastically.”)

         At this point, Lind’s and Ortega’s versions of events differ sharply. Lind would later report in a sworn affidavit that Ortega then said, “Thanks? Really?” And Lind responded, “No. You made him blow (take a breath alcohol test) 25 times.”

         Cameras show Lind walking away from Ortega, dialing a cell phone, and then turning in the officer’s direction once more. Standing at a distance of eight feet or more, Lind wags a finger in the air and can be seen saying something to Ortega.

         According to Lind, he said, “Justice will prevail.”

         According to the officer, Lind said, “And you got something coming to you, too, pal.”

         Ortega later reported that he “felt threatened by this as he was sitting down.” He said he “then advised (Lind), ‘You just made a threat to a police officer.’”

         Lind said Ortega “immediately became angry, threw down his papers, stood up and said, ‘Want to bet?’ He approached me, squared off in front of me with his hands behind his back, appearing be reaching for his handcuffs.  He then put his right hand on his gun.  I immediately turned my back and walked away to avoid conflict.” Lind said Ortega “seemed agitated.”

         The cameras appear verify these assertions. Ortega then is seen leaving the courthouse, and can be observed pacing back and forth, talking on his own cell phone, and peering through the courthouse doors.

         When Ortega reentered the building, he told court bailiffs about his version of the comment. Lind was arrested at the courthouse by Santa Maria police and jailed for three days before being allowed to post bond.

         A crime report by Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputy Michael Fuller, who viewed the surveillance video, wrote that he “did not hear anything” but nevertheless “noticed (Lind) was pacing back and forth and appeared agitated.” Fuller also reported that he “did witness Lind in close proximity to Officer Ortega while he was being agitated.”

         Nowhere in his initial report does Fuller claim to have seen Lind point a finger or shout into Ortegas’s face, as the latter alleges.        

         “I did not threaten Officer Ortega as he claims, at any time or in any way,” said Lind.

         With no witnesses to the incident, and apparently no audio recording, it’s Lind’s word against that of Ortega, a recent hire of the Santa Maria Police Department.

         Senior Dep. Dist. Atty. Jerry Lulejian declined comment on Lind’s case.

         “After providing video evidence of the incident that proves my innocence and that my accusers lied,” said Lind, “the district attorney and the judge refuse to release me and are continuing in their effort to prosecute me with zero evidence. Their tyrannical actions against me are in direct violation of their  oaths of office and my unalienable God-given rights to freedom.”

          Any law criminalizing speech is unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment ''if it sweeps within its prohibitions constitutionally protected free speech activities,'' according to a 1971 federal court ruling which has been reaffirmed in multiple cases as recently as 2000.

         Lind said he has lodged a damage claim against Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Kay S. Kuns, who has been hearing his case. Lind filed a “notice of intent to preserve an interest” in the jurist’s Solvang home.

         When Lind appeared for a June 30 hearing, he was rearrested on a new conspiracy charge. He next appears July 21 in Santa Maria Superior Court.