LOT’s Beau Arrested In Keene District Court
After sitting in court quietly for around 20 minutes, a court security officer walked up to Beau in the middle of a trial and told him he should remove his hat.
The judge took notice of the hat moments later and called a recess with the ultimatum “If you still have the hat on when I come back, I’m going to hold you in contempt.”
The video picks up during this recess.
He was later brought back before Judge Burke and sent to jail for 5 days for this.
Ryder Faces Parking Ticket Trial in Keene
Although the City of Keene has been known to drop several activists’ parking tickets when faced with a court date, such did not happen on Monday. Nick Ryder had a “Notice of Violation” placed on his car in October of 2010, and in March 2011, the matter was handled in Keene District Court. (Update 03-30-11) Judge Burke has found Ryder guilty, and enforced the fine of $15.
Click to view the court decision
Most everybody simply pays the low cost of a parking ticket in Keene. But not Ryder, and not many other activists such as Ian Freeman, Johnny Ray, Mark Edge, and Dale Everett, who have all resisted paying the parking fine, and were either found not guilty in court, or had the matter dropped before trial.
Here is the video from Monday’s trial:
During trial, the question came up of whether the owner of a vehicle is legally responsible for parking tickets placed on it, even if the owner was not the operator of the vehicle. According to the Keene City Code, the answer is yes:
Sec. 94-155. Owner responsibilities.
A person shall not allow, permit or suffer a vehicle registered in his name to stop, stand or park in violation of any section of this Code controlling the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles. The owner or person in whose name such vehicle is registered shall be held prima facie responsible for such violations.
(Code 1970, § 2818.0)
Video: Ryder Petitions City Council for Parking Prohibition Reform
In a letter that can be found in this Free Keene Forum thread, Nick Ryder asks the City Council to address multiple legal and moral concerns regarding Keene’s ban on parking on a city street after 1am between November 1 and May 1.
On October 31, parking on a city street past 1am is just fine – but the very next day, whether there is snow on the ground or not, it results in a $15 fine. Ryder asked the City Council to consider a more lenient approach to what seems to be little more than a revenue source for the city and police, at least when no snow removal attempts are in progress.
(Thanks to Kager for camera operating)
Results: The committee claims that the City is already reviewing this ordinance, and will not take any action outside of the previously scheduled review.
NH Activist Sovereign Curtis Has Violation Charge Dismissed
Sovereign Curtis, possibly best known for his arrest in Nashua at a 420 rally, or for being a main organizer of the Porcupine Freedom Festival, was in court today to face a trial on a violation charge. The complaint was based on an allegation that Curtis had started a fire on Hampton Beach without a permit, which would be against the town ordinance.
The State came un-prepared, and asked for a last minute continuance. This same request has been carried out many times by the Nashua Police Department in Nashua District Court. The presiding judge there has, without fail, granted the State’s request. However, today in Hampton District Court, the judge upheld Curtis’ request to have the charges dismissed due to lack of scheduling on the State’s side.
Video: Court Trials from Sept. 29th
On Wednesday, in addition to a trial on criminal trespass at the county jail, Ian faced charges related to a February citation when a police officer “caught” him with a Shire license plate on his car rather than the “required” State issued one.
Full Video of that trial:
And as previously reported, four of the activists accused of trespassing for walking around the County Jail property had a consolidated trial on Wednesday.
Lauren Canario has already reported to jail to serve time on the trespassing charge. Dale Everett and Ian Freeman have pending appeals to the State Supreme Court before they will be forced to serve time or pay the fine related to that charge.
Four of the Trespassive Twelve Sentenced
Ian Freeman, Lauren Canario, Sean Murphy, and Dale Everett were all found guilty of violation trespassing in court today in relation to arrests that took place at the Cheshire County House of Corrections.
They were originally charged with misdemeanors, but the judge found insufficient evidence for that, and instead found them guilty of violations.
Dale and Lauren were both given $620 fines which they refuse to pay, and will report to jail within one week (barring a pending appeal).
Sean Murphy was sentenced to a $310 fine which he will “pay” by doing community service.
Ian Freeman was sentenced to a $1000 fine. It was originally set at $500, but due to Ian’s perceived “Lack of respect” it was doubled.
No activists are willing to pay a fine – but some are appealing and it may delay any sentenced jail stays.
Video of closing arguments and sentencing can be found recorded at the live stream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kdc-live
Direct link: Video of closing arguments
Direct link: Video of Sentencing
Nick Ryder Speaks For City Council Seat
An empty City Council seat was left 2 weeks ago by Randy Filiault, who is leaving Keene. A short filing period was opened for the seat, and Free Keene blogger Nick Ryder applied for the seat. I ran for the council in 2009 and did not win. When filling an empty seat, the full council votes on a replacement councilor. Video of the speech and vote is below courtesy of Cheshire TV:
Yes, I know I talked fast. I did not receive any votes; but got a lot of compliments from councilors after the event on my speech.
KPD Attempting to Destroy Seized Property
This past Tuesday, Heika was arrested after using a megaphone to speak in front of the Keene District Court. It’s worth noting again, Heika was not warned that her behavior would lead to arrest or seizure of property; police just walked up and arrested her.
The police took the megaphone, which was no longer in Heika’s hands, as evidence to be held for her court date. Heika’s charges were fully dealt with on Wednesday morning in a plea deal, but she had not been given the megaphone back yet.
Now, Keene Police are asking for the court’s permission to destroy or sell the megaphone! It does not belong to Heika, nor does it belong to the police, of course. But they have filed a motion to “Destroy Contraband and/or Forfeit Property and Destroy or Sell Same”. Essentially attempting to permanently keep this piece of property, which is not illegal to own, out of the hands of it’s owner.
Click to read the KPD’s motion
It is my understanding that a “legal” resistance will be put against this in court. Stay tuned for updates.
More Video: Sunday’s Activist Arrests
Nick Ryder has published the latest video to show the arrests of 5 people in downtown Keene that took place on Sunday. It all began after one woman was arrested for drinking a beer on a City bench.
As of Monday Morning, all arrested activists except for Rich Paul and Ian are out of custody with pending charges. It is unclear why either is still in, or what they are charged with, but the most updated information will be found on our forum thread about this subject at http://forum.freekeene.com/index.php?topic=3564
Many Arrested in Downtown Keene
Do humans have a right to sit in public and drink a bottle of water?
A glass of lemonade?
A can of beer?
Some people think we should not have a right to drink the latter, but how are they different? Who is more hurt because a woman drinks a beer outside as opposed to water?
Activists were arrested Sunday evening in Keene. A woman named Heika was arrested first for possession of an open alcohol container in The Square. Further arrests occurred when activists Meg, Wes, Ian, and Rich Paul did not back down from standing in front and behind the police cruisers trying to take Heika and others away.
Further arrests occurred at the police station for allegedly having an open alcohol container inside the police station.
Here is a link to a long live upload from the scene from Ian Freeman.
http://qik.com/video/9339873
And here is a short video of Ian’s arrest:
Further video should be available and coming soon.
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