Thanks to MassLive.com’s Lori Stabile, who was there in Palmer when I was arrested for video recording in the town hall, for her follow up piece:
A disorderly conduct charge was dropped against Ian Freeman, the New Hampshire man arrested last fall outside a public auction of town-owned properties at the Town Building.
Now he plans to fight the accusation that he violated a municipal ordinance before the event.
A hearing will be held May 22 in Palmer District Court on a motion to dismiss the ordinance violation of being disorderly before the public auction. Freeman is being represented by William C. Newman, Western Massachusetts director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I didn’t do anything wrong . . . It shouldn’t be a crime to record video in a public place,” Freeman, 32, said Wednesday. “I’m willing to go all the way to help protect people in a similar situation.”
The ordinance violation carries a $50 fine, and Freeman said he’d rather continue to fight the case than pay it, even though he’s spent much more than that in the gasoline it takes to get to Palmer, about an hour and a half drive away from Keene, N.H., where he runs the radio show “Free Talk Live.” He is part of the “Free State Project,” an initiative to recruit “20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire,” according tofreestateproject.org
The disorderly conduct charge was not prosecuted in December. At the time, Assistant District Attorney M. Colleen Martin wrote it was not being prosecuted for the purpose of moving forward with the municipal ordinance violation.
In a report by Officer Sean M. Ford provided by Freeman, it states that Freeman was outside a Bondsville duplex – one of the properties slated for the public auction – and was yelling at the town’s attorney and acting in a disruptive manner toward potential buyers approaching the property. Freeman was part of a group that gathered in support of Joseph “Jay” Noone, a Bondsville call firefighter who lived at the duplex before it was taken for non-payment of taxes. In Officer Raymond L. Tenzcar’s report, Freeman was described as “argumentative” and “confrontational.”
At the October auction, town officials posted signs saying video recording is not allowed, a move the town manager said was prompted by events the summer before, atanother municipal auction. In summer 2011, Freeman was one of the men in town to support Noone, who was going to be evicted from his Main Street property for non-payment of taxes. Freeman and another man ended up attending the auction – and video recording.
At the most recent auction, Freeman said there were “silly, little printed signs” warning not to video record, which he called a “clear violation of basic constitutional principles.” Freeman said he believes it’s important to able to use video cameras in public settings to have an “objective record.”
“Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to the town of Palmer,” Freeman said.
Newman, co-counsel on the case with Shawn Allyn, said the motion states that there is no basis to issue the charge and that Freeman’s attempt to record the proceedings was protected by the First Amendment. The signs banning video recording have since been removed, something Newman called “encouraging.”
“I find it encouraging when First Amendment rights are restored,” Newman said.
In October, town officials only allowed registered bidders inside the auction due to concerns about Noone’s group potentially disrupting the proceedings. Police were stationed inside and outside the building to enforce the no video recording rule.
