New Keene District Court Judge Erin B McIntyre Smacks Down Prosecutor
Keene, NH business owner Christopher Waid received a parking ticket when he was downtown in late 2017 and immediately went to the parking department in the city building to demand his right to a trial. While inside the building, he received a second ticket on his car! He also immediately filed for his trial on that one. The double ticket trial was slated for early April and would involve two of the three Keene parking enforcers, meaning they couldn’t be on the streets victimizing other peaceful motorists if they are sitting in a courtroom! Even if Chris had lost the trials, just keeping the enforcers off the streets for a couple hours is a win on its own.
Chris entered the Keene District Court to face down the charges on April 9th and emerged victorious, with both tickets dismissed by new Keene judge Erin B McIntyre. (Longtime district court judge Edward J Burke is recently semi-retired and is only doing fill-in work.) Chris brilliantly challenged both parking tickets on technicalities. The first ticket was thrown out by McIntyre because the location of the alleged offense was not correct and the second ticket was tossed because parking enforcer Linda Desruisseaux lazily cited the wrong section of city code. Many judges would have simply allowed the prosecutor to amend the tickets upon request but McIntyre wasn’t letting the prosecutor have any slack! The exasperated Keene police prosecutor, Eleanor Moran, upon the second dismissal vowed she’d be filing a motion to reconsider, however she never did, according to court records. Here’s the full trial video:
There are a couple of important lessons here. (more…)
Robin Hooding has been going strong and consistent since around the turn of the new year. In the thousands of collective hours that the Merry people have spent marching the streets of Keene, we’ve seen our share of haters. For every few supporters, there’s usually one detractor, and of the few dozen who will yell out profanities or insults, only a handful have ever gotten physical. There was Bradford Hutchinson, a well known indigent local who often goes under the moniker ‘the King of Keene’ online. He was upset over the Merry people’s nullification of the parking enforcer’s jobs, and expressed himself by waving a can of pepper spray in Garret’s face before trying to grab him around the head. Deflected with minimal resistance, he eventually wandered off on his own.
Then there was Nicholas McCallister, who seemed less concerned about Robin Hooding and more concerned with civilians in possession of cameras. He began threatening me while I was with James and Graham, while none of us were filming, thus resulting in him getting his wish and becoming a video star. For all of his huffing and puffing, he seemed content with punching James in the arm and, like Bradford, wandering off. (more…)
A town has filed suit against a group that walks around refilled the parking meters of strangers in an activity they call Robin Hooding.
Named for the classic do-gooder and their town of residence, Keene, New Hampsire, members of ‘Robin Hood of Keene’ are accused of harassing the city’s parking enforcement officers in a civil suit filed May 2.
The group denies this, however. They say the city is just mad because of lost revenue from parking tickets. (more…)
KEENE – The city has filed a lawsuit against six citizens, part of a group dubbed Robin Hood of Keene that patrols downtown armed with video cameras and pockets full of change to fill expired parking meters.
Also known as Robin Hooders, the six are associated with the Free Keene group.
“They say video recording or talking to them is harassing them, but I don’t agree with that,” “Robin Hooder” James Cleaveland said of parking enforcement officers. “So they want to establish a safety zone of fifty feet.”
Members of the group place cards under windshield wipers that read, “Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king’s tariffs, Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Please consider paying it forward,” and includes an address where donations can be sent.
The group says the suit was filed because the city is losing revenue from parking tickets. The city says the activists are harassing its employees. (more…)
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