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.
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.
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.
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
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.
