Denton city council candidate wants to clear name despite dismissal of case

by Chris Speight of of North Texas Daily

A current city council candidate for District 3, freelance journalist and civil rights activist, Eliborio "Eli Gemini" Beltran, was charged with a misdemeanor, which was later dropped.

But Beltran would rather the case go to court.

Beltran, 42, faced charges of failure to identify himself to a police officer until March 23 when the charge was dropped because the complaint against Beltran was incomplete. Beltran said he wants to prove his innocence before a jury but Judge Robin Ramsay dismissed Beltran's request.

The charges, a Class C Misdemeanor, were dismissed by city prosecutor Stephanie Berry because of a supposed "computer glitch," Beltran said. Berry did not respond to multiple requests for comment before press time.

Beltran said Berry dismissed the case on March 23 because the words "failure to identify" were not on the complaint in the paperwork's correct space.

The complaint arose because of the way Beltran, also known as "Eli Gemini," spoke to a Denton police officer after fighingt with Mark Menza, an audio professional from Dallas, who was using crutches at the time, on Sept. 27.

The altercation occurred because Beltran was protesting the second annual Thin Line Film Festival, hosted by the Texas Filmmakers.

Joshua Butler, the president of the nonprofit Texas Filmmakers, said that on the fourth and final day of the festival, Beltran protested Texas Filmmakers for allegedly discriminating against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender peoples.

Beltran said the Texas Filmmakers has discriminated against him because he's openly gay and Hispanic.

"Essentially, Mr. Menza walked outside and Eli gets in his face with the camera and says, 'Texas Filmmakers discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, how do you feel about that?'" Butler said.

Menza told Beltran to put away the camera and Beltran refused on the grounds that it was a public space, Butler said. Menza swung his crutch to block the camera, then Beltran grabbed his crutch and beat the handicapped man with it, knocking Menza down and his glasses into the street, Butler said.

"Eli hit a man who had crutches, with his own crutches," Butler said.

Beltran said he told Menza he needed to put his crutches down, but Menza kept coming at him.

"I had no choice but to defend myself," Beltran said. "This is not recorded but I was able to wrestle one of his crutches away and bop him with it."

Denton police arrested Beltran because he identified himself as "Eli Gemini," his pseudonym, and refused to show identification, Beltran said.

Beltran was one of the original members of the association.

He said he thinks Berry is trying to cover for the police officer who arrested him because he falsely arrested him. Beltran said he did provide a name and contact information to the officer.

A similar incident occurred at the first annual Thin Line Film Festival in September 2007.

Butler said that he and a friend, William Willis, were leaving Cool Beans on Hickory Street. Butler was packing his speakers into his car when Beltran was protesting people outside the entrance.

"I am literally down in my car, putting my equipment up when I hear a scuffle begin to take place, between my friend and Eli," Butler said. "That's when I looked up and saw my friend grab Eli's phone out of his hand."

Beltran said he was calling police because Willis had thrown his recorder over the fence of Cool Beans into a vacant lot. He said police later found his recorder with a cracked screen.

"I knew that it was time to end the confrontation before it got out of hand, so Willis and I got into my car to leave, and proceeded to do so," Butler said. "We were pulled over and grilled by police for an hour and had my car searched."

The police found nothing in Butler's car, and after giving him a field sobriety test, they let him go home, he said.

"He has tried to sabotage my career and the Texas Filmmakers numerous times by sending out 'press releases' that he writes for his gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Yahoo group to every single prestigious film group in the DFW area," Butler said. "I have no idea why he says those things."