At 10:00AM, July 11, 2012, Ademo Freeman and I, as well as about a dozen other individuals, left the Keene Activity Center and headed for Manchester. Ademo was scheduled to have a hearing at the Manchester District Court at 1:15PM.
For those unaware, Ademo recently received a letter stating that he had missed jury selection for an appeal on a resisting arrest charge stemming from the Chalking 8 incident, and that his case had been remanded back to the District Court. Ademo never received the letter notifying him of the date for jury selection. The letter itself had the correct address in the upper left corner, but the envelope displayed an address that according to the return stamp on the envelope, the USPS couldn’t even locate. (more…)
At best, it was a clerical error that sent Ademo Freeman’s notice of jury selection from Manchester superior court to 47 Schultz Street, an address that does not exist in Keene. At worst, it was a deliberate attempt to deny his right to a jury trial in the Chalking 8 case. Though the post office informed the court that the notification was not delivered, no further attempt was made to contact Ademo about the hearing that he had requested. As a result, on Wednesday, Judge Lyons ordered him caged for 60 days without consideration of the court’s error. He passed the buck to the supreme court, advising that the only challenge to the imposition of the sentence could be made through the third, and highest layer of NH judiciary.
Unless the supreme court intervenes, Ademo will serve sixty days, possibly forty if afforded all of his good time. Video of the scene in the courtroom is embedded below.
After months of meetings, including one to which Judge John P. Arnold of “superior” court was invited and did not attend, the Grievance Panel has voted overwhelmingly, 9-1, to recommend the house proceed with an impeachment investigation against Arnold. The full house will now need to vote for said investigation. Once the full investigation opens, others who have grievances agains John P. Arnold (and there are plenty of his victims around) will be able to bring them forth.
Despite appeals court decisions that make it clear that schools must allow counter-recruiters in if they allow military recruiters, the Keene school board decided not to allow veterans to set up a counter-recruiting table at Keene high school. Their excuse is that representatives from colleges and workplaces are able to also reach out to students and therefore they are exposed to other post-high-school options. Of course, none of those other people will be providing information specifically counter to the lies and misinformation given by the recruiters. Also, it’s worth noting that the recruiters are there several times per year, and other viewpoints either not allowed at all, or barely. See the entire interaction between me and the school board from the clip below, courtesy of Cheshire TV. After the video, you’ll find the Keene Sentinel’s report on the meeting which focused primarily on the counter-recruiting situation. Thanks to Sentinel reporter Kaitlin Mulhere for the excellent article.
The next step in this saga will be taken by NH Peace Action, as they will be reaching out to the NHCLU regarding suing the school board to allow veterans to be on-campus as often as the military recruiters. Stay tuned here for the latest.
If you’ve been reading the blog in the last few months, you may have seen Ademo’s piece/video where he updates us on the situation surrounding his chalking arrest from Manchester last year. In short, the “superior” court there sent a hearing notice to the wrong address – an address that doesn’t even exist, and so Ademo was unaware of his pending court date, and therefore missed it. Ademo has never missed a court date. He would not have missed this one – especially since he’d REQUESTED it! He was trying to get a “de novo” (from the beginning) trial in front of a jury since a robed man had convicted him in a bench trial. He figured he’d have a chance to convince a jury of his innocence.
Well, not only did the court send the hearing notice to the wrong place, but Ademo could prove it and he filed motions in both district and “superior” courts to correct their error and re-set the trial date. The motions were denied.
So, to recap, all the courts need to do to screw you out of a jury trial is send a notice to the wrong address! Apparently their mistake counts against YOU. (more…)
Kate has posted a piece at CopBlock about Ademo’s ridiculous caging:
At best, it was a 
Radio Free Keene News is a five minute newscast which is available as 
