Journalist given 5 years of probation surrounding DEA raid

Jose Gutierrez, a journalist and marijuana activist brutally arrested during the April 2012 federal raids on Oaksterdam University, was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and five years probation today after being found guilty of assault on a federal officer.

Gutierrez was covering the Drug Enforcement Administration raid on Oaksterdam University for Pacifica radio affiliate KPFA when he was beaten and arrested near Coffee Shop Blue Sky, an ancillary dispensary associated with the Oakland, Calif. cannabis college.

“This is a case of the federal government trying to rewrite history in order to divert attention from its highly aggressive and harmful raid on medical marijuana businesses in Oakland,” E.D. Lerman, one of the attorneys representing Gutierrez, said in a release. “It’s outrageous that the Obama justice department would conduct, let alone prioritize, a frivolous prosecution such as Mr. Gutierrez’s.”

Gutierrez had faced up to eight years in federal prison.