On July 8, 2010, as an angry crowd made its way through downtown Oakland smashing windows, James Cho and his wife, Kim, huddled in the back of his store, JC Jewelry, along with an employee and her 2-year-old daughter.

That day, members of the crowd, enraged over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Johannes Mehserle, the BART police officer who had killed Oscar Grant in 2009, looted stores and lit trash cans on fire.

“It seemed like the people were crazy. I understood why they were angry,” Cho said. “But I was scared to death.”

By late afternoon, Cho heard people shaking the steel bars covering his windows, which eventually gave way. More than 200 people rushed into the store, smashing glass jewelry cases, punching Cho in the face, pummeling his wife and running off with around $100,000 worth of merchandise — enough to force the jeweler out of business.

Around 50 riot police stood across the street watching the melee, Cho said. But it took 30 minutes for officers to arrive at the scene, despite multiple 911 calls.

Oakland's city attorney sued two of the looters and won a $50,000 civil judgment against them. But Cho hasn't received a cent, because the city can’t track down the defendants.

Nonetheless Oakland is again considering using civil litigation, this time to target people who broke windows and caused other damage during a Nov. 3 Occupy movement protest. 

A month ago, PG&E turned off Cho’s electricity. He is eight months behind on his rent. He has had to borrow $20 at a time from his 97-year-old mother to provide food for himself and his wife.

“I am very angry with those people,” Cho said during an interview in the apartment where he lives above the shuttered store. “The city didn’t explain everything to me. Like: How are they going to get money out of looters?”

Former Oakland City Attorney John Russo said he decided to sue looters after learning they destroyed Cho's business. Raised in a family of jewelers, Cho came to Oakland from Seoul, South Korea, in 1979. He opened his store at 19th Street and Broadway in 2000, specializing in “grills,” ornate gold and gemstone false teeth popular among rap musicians. Over the years, Cho became a neighborhood fixture as customers referred his work to friends and friends of friends. However, Cho neglected to insure his business against property damage. When looters scooped up dozens of finished grills from his store last July, he lost everything.

“I feel sorry for them. That’s why we took the case on. They were emblematic of the suffering that some of the small businesses have undergone as a result of the looting and violence,” said Russo, who left his job as Oakland city attorney in March to become the city manager of Alameda. “We wanted those small businesspeople to feel like the city cared about them, particularly after you had city officials standing in front of the police line while rioters were taking stuff out of store windows on Broadway.”

In October 2010, Russo’s office issued a press release announcing the city would sue Gerald Dugas and Terry Williams, who had allegedly been found with stolen grills, under a California law allowing the government to protect people’s property rights. In April, Russo issued another release announcing a judge had ordered each man pay to $25,000, which the city would give to Cho.

Neither Williams nor Dugas showed up in court. The Bay Citizen has not been able to locate them, and neither has the city attorney’s office. Alex Katz, the city attorney's spokesman, said the judgment would be turned over to the city’s collections department.

“If the defendants have any assets or wages to attach, or any property to put a lien on, we may be able to collect,” said Alex Katz, a spokesman for Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker. “That might not be likely.”

Katz said Parker would also try to help recover some of Cho's stolen jewelry that the Alameda County district attorney is holding as evidence.

Meanwhile, Oakland officials are reviewing hundreds of hours of videos from an Occupy protest last month in search of evidence linking identifiable people with specific property damage.

On Friday, Katz said, “If there’s any civil action we can take against anybody who came to Oakland to just try to trash our city, we would definitely like to do that.”

Cho says he obtained a job at a friend’s jewelry shop in Atlanta earlier this year, but came back to Oakland after learning of the judge's order. He said the money would give him a chance to reopen the store he’d spent a decade on. But on his return, he has found only disappointment. He said he felt the city attorney's office had given him false hope.

“They made it look like I got something,” Cho said, “but I didn’t get anything.”

Russo and Katz said it was unreasonable for Cho to make financial decisions based on the hope of receiving money as a result of the city’s lawsuit. They said Cho was never guaranteed he would receive a payment.

“I can understand they would be frustrated. But that doesn’t mean it’s correct to direct their frustration at people working at the city attorney’s office,” said Russo. “The case still has its value in terms of deterrence, because those judgments are still good. They’re good for 10 years.”

As they wait for the money that may never arrive, Cho and his wife Kim sleep under a makeshift tent made from sheets in order to stay warm in their unlit apartment. Cho’s wife Kim, who won’t give her full name out of fear that her college-age daughters from a previous marriage will learn she’s destitute, says her body still aches from being beaten by looters. She won’t go to the hospital because she doesn't want to face another bill.

Cho said he’d just like to get some money to begin molding, setting and polishing grills again.

“I don’t need much money to open up. I’m a craftsman. I make my own inventory,” he said.