KZ: “Were there any prosecutions of demonstrators? What was the result?”
CE: The charging and prosecution of those arrested has been less than consistent. Peter Ryan, was arrested on the 9th with obstruction and failure to disperse. Of the 23 people arrested on March 11th I believe 11 are being charged. The eight who chose to risk arrest my wearing backpacks into the ‘free speech zones’ have been charged with disobeying a flag officer, which is a traffic violation.
In an interesting addendum, the trial that happened two weeks ago for the people arrested in Olympia during the May 2006 shipment resulted in an interesting conclusion. After four chaotic days in the courtroom (which included the defense catching a police officer lying while on the stand, the judge declaring a rarely granted recess after the prosecutor had an emotional breakdown, and the prosecutor tainting the jury by bringing up incriminating evidence on the defendants that they had decided to not include during the pretrial and flashing pictures of mug shots to the jury) the judge declared a mistrial.
The circumstances were highly questionable. Throughout the week it had become clear that the jury appeared to favor acquitting the defendants. On the afternoon of Thursday, March 29th three men entered the courtroom and presented to the judge evidence that confidential jury information had been leaked. The evidence presented was e-mails sent out on a PRIVATE, moderated list serve populated only by the defendants and the legal team. It requires a moderator to sign anyone on and on this particular list there had been communication issues because there was such a delay between sending and posting (because both the e-mails and entrants had to be “okayed” by the moderator and he wasn’t always around to do so). The conclusion that the defendants seem to have made is that the list serve was hacked into and tampered with allowing for others to join without the knowledge of the moderator. The right of lawyer/client confidentiality clearly allows e-mail as a mode of communication.
KZ: “What actions are planned for the future?”
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