The lawyer with the “bleeding heart” who believes he can free street vendor activist Edin Enamorado

In January I met a lawyer who worked under Rico Suave.

His real name was Damon Alimouri, and he represented a member of the so-called Justice 8, known online for confronting people they accused of harassing street vendors, capturing the noisy aftermath on video and then calling on their followers to support the vendors. San Bernardino County prosecutors had charged the eight with a variety of crimes ranging from false imprisonment to conspiracy to assault, and managed to persuade a judge to deny bail to all but one.

In court, Alimouri stood out from his fellow defence lawyers, and not just because of his colourful nickname, coined by fans who raved about his tailored suits, shiny pompadour and oratorical skills. His passionate but unpretentious style contrasted with the flashy demeanour of some other lawyers.

He called the Justice 8 case a threat to civil liberties, often referring to the U.S. Constitution and the Founding Fathers. The son of an Iranian father and a Mexican mother, he got sheriff's deputies to contradict what they had written in their arrest reports.

His client, Vanessa Carrasco, faced 13 felony counts and a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. Last month, she and six others pleaded guilty to the same single charge: assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. They are free on bail awaiting sentencing in December, leaving only their leader, Edin Alex Enamorado, to fight his case. (Charges against another defendant 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 office in Pasadena last week. On his desk were books by Oscar Wilde and Hegel. The photos on the walls ranged from Emiliano Zapata to Malcolm “Not what I wanted, but if all the other charges are dismissed, we'll take it.”

Now he represents Enamorado, the most high-profile member of the Justice 8. A political organizer by trade, Enamorado began recording his showdowns with street vendor harassers three years ago, eventually gaining hundreds of thousands of social media followers but also critics for blatant tactics that included doxxing and protests outside people's homes and workplaces.

Prosecutors have been particularly tough on the Cudahy native, who Alimouri said rejected an offer to plead guilty to two felonies (of the 16 he faces) and receive a six-year prison sentence.

In court, lead prosecutor Jason Wilkinson described Enamorado and the rest of Justice 8 as practicing “ritualized harassment” and “preconceived vigilantism” for their roles in three incidents: chasing down a security guard who had harassed a street vendor and spraying him with pepper spray; chasing a man home after he threw a plastic bottle at them during a protest outside the Pomona Police Department; and hitting a driver after he drove his car within inches of them.

Enamorado has been held without bail at the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto since December.

Alimouri's appearance was completely different from when we first met at the Victorville courthouse. In a black jacket, shirt and tie, with a bushy haircut and a wiry beard, he looked like an MMA fighter ready to compete in a Johnny Cash convention.

“I've been looking into the whole concept of austerity,” the 33-year-old explained. “A close personal friend died of a drug overdose and I've experienced some personal tragedies since the beginning of this year. And now this case.”

Enamorado's camp reached out to him last month, looking for a new lawyer.

“I have had clients accused of murder, rape and child abuse – they got bail,” Alimouri said, the intensity of his voice increasing with each crime he mentioned. “They [prosecutors] say they are trying to protect Enamorado's alleged victims. “No, they want to say something.”

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 would [San Bernardino County prosecutors] Use everything he tells you against him. They know 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 in a press conference, with San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus ridiculing their activism as “clickbait for cash” and displaying mug shots on a billboard meant to evoke a Mafia pedigree with Enamorado at the Ball. Supporters have held fundraisers, and dozens have appeared at Justice 8's court hearings.

The case is serving as a closely watched referendum on internet justice, with fierce debates on social media. How far is too far to call out people who have attacked society's most despised? Or is it always justified to defend the defenseless?

“Enamorado is not the same as Enamorado,” Alimouri continued. “I love and respect him, but this is a higher thing.”

A native of the San Gabriel Valley, Alimouri studied philosophy and political science at USC and decided to study law after watching a YouTube video of conservative icon William F. Buckley interviewing famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey.

Bailey “advocated for rehabilitation and the right to discovery,” said Alimouri, who keeps a framed magazine ad on his office wall showing Bailey shilling for Smirnoff Vodka. “I thought, 'That's what I wanted to be. He's cool, polite, confident and fair.'”

Alimouri's “bleeding heart” came from his father, who fled Iran after opposing both the Shah and the country's Islamic regime and found work as a chauffeur in the United States.

Alimouri had never heard of Enamorado before responding to a Facebook call seeking lawyers for Justice 8 and outraged by the allegations. Representing Carrasco pro bono, he soon realized she was “small potatoes” to prosecutors in their zeal to nail Enamorado.

I told Alimouri he had an impossible task. Victorville is not exactly George Gascón's territory.

I agreed with him that the case against Enamorado and Judge 8 represented prosecutorial overreach, but noted that his client was unlikely to receive mercy. Outside the courthouse is a giant, Pietà-like statue dedicated to officers killed in the line of duty, as well as a wooden replica of the city's first sheriff's outpost.

In the incidents involving the security guard and the driver, it was questionable who started it. But the video shows that after following the Pomona man home, Enamorado and others surrounded his car, forced him to get out, and then forced him to get on his knees and apologize. One person yelled, “We're letting you live, buddy!”

“There was no way anyone could have seen that video without cringing,” I told Alimouri. He was unimpressed.

“You said 'cringe.' This is not a crime. This is not a popularity contest. This is not a moral argument. These are legal issues. This is not a question of whether or not we cringe when we see a particular video.”

Enamorado's next preliminary hearing is July 31. Alimouri plans to file motions challenging the venue, the charges and whether San Bernardino County has jurisdiction over the Pomona disputes. Enamorado is ready to go to court to clear his name — and Alimouri isn't afraid.

“I have faith in ordinary people serving on juries,” he said. “That is the beauty of the law. Edin's fate would be in the hands of generous people, not in the hands of prosecutors and judges. Jefferson said, 'I regard the jury trial as the only anchor yet conceived by man by which a government can be held to the principles of its Constitution.'”