Ian Freeman recently had a “residency” case dropped by the City of Keene. Whether or not this case comes back in one form or another is yet to be seen. However, The New Hampshire Supreme Court may end up deciding the residency issue before the City of Keene (or DMV) decides whether or not to pursue additional actions against Mr. Freeman.
The Fosters Daily Democrat reports, “A trial is tentatively set for February 2014 to decide whether New Hampshire will be allowed to use controversial language on its voter registration forms that was previously blocked by a judge.”
The case is Rivers, et. al. v State of New Hampsire. A temporary injunction was issued by Strafford County Superior Court Judge John Lewis preventing the state from using new voter registration forms that included a paragraph discussing motor vehicle and residency requirements. Lewis wrote the new wording was an “inaccurate and confusing expression of the law” that “does not pass constitutional muster.”
The lawsuit was brought forth by the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire and four students represented by the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.
On March 16 of this year, I received a parking ticket while parked on Winter Street. After looking at the ticket, I realized that the ticket was written before the meter was supposed to have expired. I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes. The ticket was written at 2:05:57. A few days later, I went to the Police Department stating that I would like to challenge the ticket. A Pre-Trial Conference (PTC) was set, and I motioned to waive the PTC. A Hearing was then scheduled for June 12 at 9:00am.
I arrived at the District Court at approximately 8:40am and at 8:50 was called by the Clerk to go into the “small room” near the lobby. I can only guess that Judge Burke did not want everyone in the main court room to see the trial.
The only witness against me was Jane McDermott, the Parking Enforcer who issued the ticket. During cross-examination I asked how, since the meters aren’t calibrated, she knew the meters kept accurate time, she stating that she doesn’t know, but if the batteries are bad, they replace them. I attempted to make a statement and was told that I would have to testify in order to introduce any “evidence,” so after the “City” rested it’s case, I was sworn in. I stated that on the date in question, I had parked at 1:00pm and put enough money in the meter to cover the next 1 hour and 6 minutes, which meant the meter should not have expired until at least 2:06 (and some seconds). Since the ticket was written at 2:05:57, I was shorted some amount of time that I was owed.
Judge Burke then said “Since the burden of proof is on the City to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I am marking a finding of not guilty.”
Bradley Manning’s 4th year of incarceration began recently, and his trial began today at Ft. Meade. Manning is facing 2 dozen charges after leaking documents to the website Wikileaks. Before giving the documents to Wikileaks, Manning attempted to give the documents to the New York Times and Washington Post, among other news outlets. Manning offered a plea bargain during a pretrial conference on February 28. His guilty plea to 10 lesser charges included possessing and willfully communicating to an unauthorized person all the main elements of the WikiLeaks disclosure. The UK Guardian reported, “That covered the so-called ‘collateral murder’ video of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq; some US diplomatic cables including one of the early WikiLeaks publications the Reykjavik cable; portions of the Iraq and Afghanistan warlogs, some of the files on detainees in Guantanamo; and two intelligence memos.
These lesser charges each carry a two-year maximum sentence, committing Manning to a possible upper limit of 20 years in prison.” (more…)
On Monday May 20, after the security theater closed, Nemi (Free Talk Live co-host) and Graham delivered bouquets of flowers to “Prince” John MacLean and Thomas P. Mullins, the City Manager & City Attorney respectively. The flowers were delivered to thank them for all of the news coverage they have brought Free Keene, Robin Hood and the Free State Project.
To learn how MacLean & Mullins have helped bring this media attention, see here, and here. Here’s video of the delivery:
