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Mason finally free as DA won’t retry case

October 18, 2012

John Ryan Mason

The District Attorney’s office announced Thursday that it will not retry San Luis Obispo firefighter John Ryan Mason who allegedly assaulted a man in a bar bathroom last year [Tribune].

Mason’s felony assault trial ended last month with a hung jury leaning eight to four in favor of acquittal. In an announcement Thursday, prosecutors indicated that the deadlock in the case would be too difficult to overcome.

“After an evaluation of all the evidence and absent the discovery of new or additional evidence, our office has determined that it will not retry the case,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jerret Gran said.

Mason, who recently received consideration for San Luis Obispo employee of the year, faced charges of felony assault with great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury. Mason, 35, engaged in a bathroom brawl at Pappy McGregor’s Bar & Grill with Jory Brigham, 33, following a wedding both had attended in June 2011. Brigham suffered 17 facial fractures from the fight.

But, the defense claimed Brigham did not divulge credible testimony as a witness. Defense attorney Chris Casciola credited Brigham changing his story about not having a flask the night of the incident as a primary reason for the majority of the jurors voting to acquit Mason.


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I wonder which of his best friend’s wives he’ll screw first?


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or which one of his wives best friends husbands he’ll beat up first


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Or which of his wife’s best friends…..


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It takes two to Tango Mary.


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Hopefully, Jory will sue his ass in Civil Court and take him for everything he has. Karma is a strong thing, John Ryan Mason!


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Thank god it’s over….Ryan and his family can finally get their lives back. Congratulations Mason family, and hope to see you back uniform Ryan, very soon!


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….and what? kill someone next time? Maybe you’ll be next.


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Yeah, and John Ryan Mason can get back to screwing his best friends’ wives, like he did before he was arrested.


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and the wives are not culpable?


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you mean their fairytale lives where everybody lives happily ever after?…while he continues to cheat on his wife and beat the s**t out of anybody who disagrees with him?…lol…yep…congratulations!


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slojo fireman, you are unbelieveable.


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Sherlock, the brotherhood stands strong! These guys are like married to each other and their union, till death due them part… They will protect each other to the end, right or wrong. SLOJO fireman (probably Ryan himself) is an ass for defending scum like this fanatic wife chasing, husband beater that he is. You can’t reason with stupid!


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SLOWOOD…..VERY well said!


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A BIG BRAVO to Stein and Casciolla by FAR the best attorney’s in SLO County!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.


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Nuthin like makin a livin off protecting pieces of shit like mason. His day will come in the form of a PCP crazed lunatic totin a baseball bat lookin for some fun.


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The moral of the story: If you commit adultery then get upset at others who expose your actions, you can go ahead and beat someone’s face into a pulp so badly that he needs metal plates. **


**Only try this if you’re a firefighter. Otherwise, you’ll be promptly arrested, tried, and imprisoned.


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Given the moral fiber of our city leadership i am sure John Ryan Mason will be awarded the employee of the year award that he so richly deserves. I am sure we taxpayers will not begrudge him ample financial consideration to mitigate the pain and anguish he has suffered. He certainly deserves the recognition. Its a strong message to the rest of the city employees and our children. Just think of the accolades that would be awarded him by the city fathers if he had actually succeded in beating the other fellow to death. John, better luck next time….No harm no foul no consequences.


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What a sad day for justice here in sleepy lil’ ol’ San Luis Obispo; which brings up a couple of questions: what, if anything, is the City of San Luis Obispo going to do regarding the employment of John Ryan Mason? Is there not a “code of conduct” for professional safety personal working for the city, if there is, will there be a hearing to determine if John Ryan Mason violated that code, and if it is determined that he violated that code, will his employment be terminated?

Does anyone have a suggestion about exactly who should be contacted within the city regarding this situation?


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The real “sad day for justice” is that people such as yourself who were not there when the event occurred and who were not in the court room when the evidence was presented will still assume that you know exactly what happened based on a few scribbled sentences and photos in the press. If the case was as cut-and-dried as the media and public opinion have it out to be, then it would have been an easy decision for the jury. The fact that 8 of the 12 jurors found Mason not guilty speaks loads to the difference in evidence that was presented in the court room and the “evidence” that was presented in the media. Yet still people will assume that they know what really happened even though they never saw one bit of it.


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“The fact that 8 of the 12 jurors found Mason not guilty speaks loads to the difference in evidence that was presented in the court room and the “evidence” that was presented in the media.”


The fact that the jury was effectively hand picked via collusion between the D.A.’s office and the defense attorney speaks more than the evidence. The District Attorney’s office had no enthusiasm to pursue a conviction in this case; this was about “protecting one of their own” since John Ryan Mason is a part of the “uniformed brotherhood”. This case was stacked against the victim from day one; no arrest for the assault for five days, no suspension for a couple of weeks, if I remember correctly; a rookie D.A. given the case to prosecute so it would not be a “hit” on her career since she is just starting out and she apparently was NOT supported by her superiors in giving her guidance in gathering all of the evidence and presenting it in a cohesive, logical manner that should have resulted in a conviction of a brutal assault.

I do care for one second if Jory Brigham was drunk or not; I do not care if he “started it”; the FACT is he was brutally beaten to the point of being knocked out, multiple fractures and bruises and extensive hospitalization and surgeries to repair the damage inflicted on him by a city employee, who, even though he was “off duty”, is still a representative of the city due to his being a public safety employee. If John Ryan Mason had been man enough to either walk away or give Mr. Brigham a single punch to the solar plexus that would have momentarily disabled Mr. Brigham and given Mr. Mason ample time to walk away, knowing that he had knocked the wind out of his opponent, nothing more would have come from that encounter.

“A jury of his peers” should not have included so many that were going to prone to dismiss the charges so readily. One woman only on the jury? This case was “thrown” on purpose, period.


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The fact that 8 out of 12 of the jury found John Ryan Mason not guilty means NOTHING.


OJ Simpson was ACQUITTED. I suppose you believe justice was served in that case, too?


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Yes, justice was served. Because you do not like the outcome of an event, doesn’t mean that it is not just. That is the one thing that people are forgetting here. There are still options for Mr. Brigham to pursue if he feels so inclined–that is also part of our justice system.


What is truly unjust is for a person to go through the process of a trial and not be found guilty, but then to suffer the prejudices and biases of other uninvolved people who think they know the real story.


I never said anything about supporting Mr. Mason or Mr. Simpson. I simply said that when people build up uninformed biases and prejudices, that is a much worse ill to society. “Well, the jury didn’t turn out the way I wanted, so it must be a conspiracy.” That’s the kind of thinking that really starts trouble far worse than any Mr. Mason or Mr. Simpson. That is the kind of thinking that forms lynch mobs, riots, and worse.


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No, the real “sad day” is when anyone world would stick up for John Ryan Mason.


Hey, have you checked to see what your wife has been doing since Mason was released?


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Here we go again. You make assumptions about what you do not know in order to try to make an argument. First, you assume I am married. Second, you assume I am male (or perhaps in a lesbian marriage). Third you assume that simply because a news article reported that Mr. Brigham claimed that Mr. Mason had an affair, that it is true. None of these things do anything to further your point. All they do is emphasize your ignorance and emphasize what I was claiming earlier–that the real tragedy here is people are basing their judgments on things they have no knowledge of.


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Are you saying you saw all of the assault?


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The real crime is the SLO DA didn’t want to prosecute this case in the first place. The police / fireman brotherhood of don’t look don’t tell lives on. Say it ain’t so, Serpico.


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Certainly not Kathie Licltic, Jan Marx or the other Council. Not the Fire Chief or Personnel, and certainly not the Police Dept. OK, just let it go, the s**t is a union man, nothing is going to happen to him. Just vote PROP 30 to protect all these as*ho*es and their jobs. Scumbag!


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Pays to have the whole system on your side. Too bad our victim was not “made”. Maybe the next attempted beating will happen to a guy that shuts fireboy down, for good. Third time might be the charm!


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And you want to know why Jory recorded his conversation? Obviously, he is not stupid. Is anyone really surprised at this outcome knowing the cronyism that flows through the State, County, City – Police, Fire, DA, Sheriff, Probation, etc. all ortecting each other unless and when THEY dicide to resolve it their way! And they want to know why people have no respect or empathy for these overpaid/underpaid bullies!


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