The county seat is abuzz over yet another scuffle at the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutor Paul Sequeira and private investigator Mark Harrison came to blows on the sidewalk outside the prosecutor’s downtown Martinez office as the PI tried to serve the deputy DA.
Sequeira was wanted to testify in last week’s court hearing in the infamous rape case against former Deputy District Attorney Michael Gressett, who is asking a judge to throw out the charges.
As many may recall, Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett punched Sequeira in the eye in March 2010 when tempers flared in the hotly contested district attorney campaign.
In the Aug. 17 altercation, Sequeira says Harrison smacked him in the jaw after the two exchanged heated words in a protracted cat-and-mouse game with the subpoena.
In Sequeira’s version of events — Harrison didn’t return my call — he was carrying a box to his car at the front of the building when he saw the PI in the crosswalk.
Sequeira says that Harrison screamed, “You’re served!”
Sequeira fired back a few unprintable responses, turned around and went back into the secured building where Harrison couldn’t follow.
“I was messing with him, and in retrospect, I should have just taken the subpoena,” Sequeira says now.
When Sequeira emerged hours later, about 7:30 p.m., the PI jumped out from behind bushes across the street, ran at him and screamed again, “You’re served, you (expletive)!”
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Tempers rose. Yelling ensued. More bad words. Fingers pointed.
Then, Sequeira says, Harrison punched him in the face, and the prosecutor wrestled the PI to the ground, restraining him in a chokehold.
A couple of guys in a beat-up sedan watched the fight. But when Sequeira asked them to hang around to make a statement, they said they didn’t have car insurance and took off before the cops showed up.
At this point, that’s the end of it.
No witnesses have come forward to verify either man’s account, and neither man wants to pursue charges, said Martinez police Lt. Aaron Roth.
But Sequeira’s days as a punching bag in Contra Costa are over.
He starts a new job Tuesday as the No. 2 district attorney in Mendocino County. The 27-year prosecutor had already scheduled his retirement in Contra Costa to start the day after his smackdown with the PI.
Sequeira had backed the wrong horse in the district attorney’s race, and the winner, Mark Peterson, demoted him and most of the old management team to make room for his own people.
But Sequeira’s $300,000 claim against Contra Costa County for physical and emotional damages related to the 2010 assault remains open. He underwent surgery to repair his eye earlier this year.
“I was trying to leave quietly and ride off into the sunset like a cowboy,” Sequeira said. “I guess that’s not my personality.”
