After only about 45 minutes of deliberations, a San Diego jury convicted a former Compton School Board member Jan. 28 of performing oral sex on a sleeping straight man in his hotel room.
Skyy De’Anthony Fisher, 32, had been free on $100,000 bond, but San Diego Superior Court Judge Runston Maino ordered him into jail immediately after the verdict.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Fox said Fisher faces a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison for the crime of oral copulation of an unconscious person. Sentencing was set for Feb. 29.
Fisher, a Democrat, was the youngest man ever elected at age 28 to the Compton Unified Board of Education in 2011, but was defeated for re-election Nov. 3, 2015 while this trial was pending. He received only 4.4 percent of the vote, and would have lost his job anyway had he been convicted of the felony before the election.
He was a controversial figure in Compton because of some unusual statements and was later arrested for DUI. He planned a trip to San Diego with a 25-year-old man named Steven whom he first met on Facebook. Both men are African American.
In a three-day trial last week, Steven testified they checked into the Keating Hotel at 432 F Street in a room with separate beds April 4, 2014. Steven said he woke up around 7:30 a.m. and discovered Fisher was orally copulating him.
Steven told the six man and six woman jury he was shocked as this was unwelcome. Fisher jumped back into bed and pretended to be asleep, according to Steven, who could not find his underwear. Steven immediately packed all his stuff and left.
His 911 call to police 30 minutes later was played several times to the jury and he appears to be sobbing.
“The person in my room tried to rape me,” he told a dispatcher.
Steven said he submitted to a rape exam with anal and oral swabs being taken. He said “it was the most uncomfortable thing I’d ever had in my life.” A criminalist testified that swabs of Steven’s penis showed DNA from Fisher’s saliva.
Fisher did not testify and his attorney, MaryEtta Marks, told jurors to question Steven’s motivation. She said Steven had been drinking and made threats to Fisher in comments to police and to Fisher himself in a police recorded phone call.
“I want Skyy to lose his job,” Steven said to police, saying he did not want Fisher to be around young males.
Fisher denied repeatedly that he was gay, and told Steven in the recorded phone call he was “high and drunk” at the time. He apologized to Steven and said “Can I make it up to you?” Fisher admitted to hiding Steven’s underwear as “a prank.”
The prosecutor told jurors the defense was raising “red herrings” and added “Steven is not on trial here.” Fox said Steven fell asleep “in a room where he thought he was safe” and Fisher committed a violation of trust.
