On July 28 the people of Ann Arbor will have an opportunity to put an end to
the disgraceful political witchhunt launched by their city government one year
ago against antiracists who protested the May 9, 1998 Ku Klux Klan rally.
The first day of the (evidence-less!!) evidentiary hearing
for ten of the antiracist defendants has been continued over to Wednesday,
July 28 at 9AM, again in Judge Ann Mattson’s courtroom.
No Damage, No Evidence – NO CASE
At the evidentiary hearing on July 16 the defense went on
the offensive, calling the two key prosecution witnesses first: former AAPD
deputy chief Jack Ceo, and the foreman of the fence company which bilked the
city for the temporary fence to protect the KKK’s recruitment rally.
Former AAPD deputy chief Jack "I don’t recall"
Ceo testified to having seen from a window on the 4th floor of city
hall that the fence was "no longer as taut as it had been". Ceo was
very clear (!!) on this point, which was interesting, since it directly
contradicted the fence company foreman who testified that he did not
notice any damage to the erect fence when he arrived at city hall to take
down the fence after the rally.
The foreman also stated that his company’s usual
procedure with rental fence of this type is to discard it –
"damaged" or not. This puts the prosecution in the awkward
position of charging people with "maliciously destroying"
"property" (garbage!!) that normally would have been scrapped
after the rally regardless of its condition.
In the wake of both the acquittal of Ryan Lang (see below)
and the first day of the evidentiary hearing, the Ann Arbor city government’s
witchhunt against antiracists is beginning to fall apart. The continuation of
this hearing is an opportunity to deliver what would likely be a decisive blow
to the more than a year old witchhunt. Getting the ten misdemeanor charges
dismissed on the heels of the powerful victory against the felony
"riot" charge in Ryan’s case could well finish off these
prosecutions altogether.
All antiracists and all who care about civil liberties
should attend.
No Record – NO CASE
The ten defendants are some of the hundreds of antiracists
who protested the Ku Klux Klan rally in Ann Arbor on May 9, 1998. They are
accused of having damaged the chain link rental fence erected by the city
government as part of its $137,000 project to protect and stage the KKK’s
rally. The charge is a misdemeanor called "Malicious Destruction of
Property Under $100".
Among the defendants are prominent antiracists and leaders
of the movement to defend affirmative action and the Defend Affirmative Action
Party at the University of Michigan.
The police and prosecutor’s office are claiming that the
antiracist defendants damaged the fence, but the police department never
made any assessment of the condition of the fence. The fence
company made a casual and entirely cursory assessment of the fence – after
it had been taken down and rolled up. Knowing they had a standard blank-check
insurance policy from the city for any assessment of material loss, they had a
financial incentive to bend the stick in the direction of assessing damage. No
record was ever made of the alleged damage by either the police or the fence
company.
The police then allowed the basis of these charges to be
scrapped and melted down, leaving only the bill from the fence company as
"evidence" of damage.
Police photographs of the fence after the rally, still
images secured from police video, eyewitness affidavits of neutral observers,
including several Peace Team members, an expert witness affidavit from the
owner/operator of a fence company who viewed the fence in question on multiple
police videos all indicate that there was no damage done to the rental fence.
In fact, the Peace Team re-erected the fence subsequent to it being pulled
from the poles by the counter-demonstrators.
Please attend this evidentiary hearing and help make
sure justice is done.
* * *
There will be a motion hearing in Judge Donald Shelton’s
courtroom for the witchhunt felony charges on Thursday, July 29, at 9AM (the
day following the evidentiary hearing on the misdemeanors). The motions
include challenges to the constitutionality of the "Riot" and
"Inciting to Riot" statutes, and a challenge to the
under-representation of black and other minority people on juries in Washtenaw
County.
One of the motions calls for dropping the "Inciting to
Riot" charge against Robin Alvarez. Robin is a 46-year-old long-time Ann
Arbor resident, a jewelry artist, and a divorced mother of two. Robin is
accused of speech alone; her case is based on error.
Judge Elizabeth Hines who bound Robin over for trial in a
written decision was under the misimpression that the speech for which she is
accused of "Inciting to Riot" occurred at the northeast corner of
city hall where events occurred that are now being used as the pretext for
"Riot" charges; that is an error. In fact, the statements involved
in this case were made by Robin at the southwest corner of the building where
absolutely nothing occurred that even the county prosecutor has accused of
being a riot. In other words where Robin made her statement, there was no riot
to be incited. This elementary mistake is an example of a judge in a hurry to
do the bidding of the prosecutor and the police. It is typical of the rush to
judgement of a political witchhunt.