After about three hours of deliberation, this morning a jury convicted Delano Blayze Malang of all charges, including mayhem, for biting off an Arcata police sergeant’s thumb.

Malang, 22, was found guilty of mayhem, assault likely to inflict great bodily injury, resisting an executive officer (Officer Jamal Jones) and resisting, delaying or obstructing an officer performing their duties. The jury also found true the special allegation that Malang personally inflicted great bodily injury on Sgt. Heidi Groszman, who lost the top half of her right thumb.

Sentencing is set for March 30 before Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreiss, who presided over the trial. In addition to the new conviction, Malang has a prior “strike” for robbery.

After jurors left the courtroom this morning, Elvine-Kreiss declined to jail the defense attorney, Deputy Conflict Counsel R.J. Loehner, for his performance during the trial.

“I don’t think it would change his behavior,” the judge told Deputy District Attorney Trent Timm, who had requested Loehner be jailed for repeated, continuous violations of court orders. “He would just continue to do his thing.”

The judge said, however, that he wants the State Bar to see a record of Loehner’s comments.

Midway through the trial the judge found Loehner had committed six acts of contempt of court. He was fined $1,550, and will have to pay $550 of that. He also was given a suspended six-day jail sentence and warned to quit violating court orders.

Loehner repeatedly insulted testifying officers. He would laugh and shake his head when he was stopped from asking an irrelevant or argumentative question, which occurred regularly. He mocked Officer Jones’s accent.

Jurors, who generally flee the courthouse immediately after they are excuse, stayed behind today to speak with Timm. They also agreed to speak to this reporter, though none wanted to give their names.

Jurors were in consensus about these issues: They believed officers had reasonable suspicion to detain Malang after he refused to leave the area when they were questioning a suspect. They believed officers used no excessive force during the arrest, and in fact were quite restrained.

“The officers did their duty well,” one juror said.

They also expressed admiration for Groszmann for her professional behavior before and after she was injured.

“We have high kudos for Sgt. Groszmann for the way she handled herself,” one juror said. Even after Malang bit her thumb off, Groszmann remained calm and continued to speak to him kindly.

All jurors were greatly influenced by the testimony of Malang himself, who admitted he bit off the thumb and agreed that when he got a chance to seriously hurt someone, he took it.

As for Loehner’s behavior, one juror said “childish” and another “below professional standards.”

But others said they thought Loehner was in a tough spot trying to defend Malang, and they figured his behavior was “calculated” for maximum effect.

Timm, in his argument rebutting Loehner’s closing argument, said Loehner had tossed in a lot of irrelevant information because he was trying to distract the jury from basing the verdict on facts and the law.

“Mr. Loehner is very skilled at getting you to feel sorry for his client,” Timm said. Loehner brought up Malang’s young age, and the fact that he was dirty on the day of his arrest. He had been homeless in Arcata for several months.

Loehner threw in a comment about Malang suffering a head injury, which was not mentioned once during the trial.

Loehner questioned why the jurors hadn’t seen the video camera footage from HSU Sgt. John Packer, who was brought in to try calming Malang down. He suggested evidence was being hidden.

“Everything I have, he has,” Timm said. “If that video would have helped his case he would have played it.”

Multiple times jurors viewed footage from the body-worn cameras of Jones, Groszmann and Officer Joseph Rodes.

Asked today whether they would be willing to serve on another jury, all said yes.

“I’m not in a rush,” one man added.

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