On Monday 6/27, the day after Porcfest 2011, there were two trials of liberty activists scheduled in Keene district court. Rich Angell for driving without a government license and Rich Paul for trespassing at the jail when he tried to bail someone out. You’ll see another angle of Beau’s arrest for wearing a hat as well. Rich Angell was found guilty and plans to appeal, while in Rich Paul’s case, the robed man, Edward Burke had to recuse himself and the trial will likely be rescheduled with a different robed man.
It’s all arbitrary. In Keene, sometimes activists are arrested for wearing hats, sometimes not. Sometimes people are threatened and arrested for using video cameras in the court lobby, sometimes not. Here’s video of Free Talk Live host Mark Edge taking a speeding ticket to trial and being found guilty. You’ll also see court security attempting to intimidate Liberty on Tour’s Pete and Ademo into removing hats and gum. They fail. Chief of security Lance Walton instructs the lumbering goons to back off and let the robed man decide, then the robed man ignores the hats and gum.
Liberty activist Jim Johnson was fined after being found guilty at a trial several weeks ago. Jim never paid the fine, so the court bureaucrats demanded he show up at a hearing about that. He was told he needs to fill out a financial affidavit so the court bureaucrats could determine if he could pay the fine, or else he’d be charged with contempt. Jim did not fill out the form and was jailed indefinitely.
In addition, court security officers Tebo and Fredriksen attempted and failed at intimidating the audience into standing for the robed man. Tebo also attempted to order me around, violating my right to cover a public hearing as a member of the press. In addition, Tebo actually assaulted me and grabbed me by the arm in an attempt to remove me from the courtroom. He and his security continued to threaten the crowd with arrest. All of this is on video:
Local Keene-native liberty activist Kate Ager has written a blog post on her facebook regarding this morning’s kidnapping of Ademo Freeman and Derrick Horton:
I woke up this morning (Tuesday June 28, 2011) to a Keene 411 text message alerting me that, “Ademo Freeman just got arrested at city hall,” so I went down there. When I arrived, I passed Jason Repsher downstairs who was doing Don’t Take the Plea outreach and proceeded to the second floor where the first thing I saw upon opening the door was a Keene Police officer grabbing Derrick Horton’s arm; he was ordered to put his camera on the counter, placed under arrest and taken into a back room. Ademo, who was being held in the conference room, was taken to a room off to the side where I could see him through the window and spoken to by multiple police officers. After their encounter, Ademo was taken to the Keene Police Department. Jason Repsher stayed at the Keene District Court to watch Derrick’s proceedings while Rich Paul and I went to the police department to gain further information about Ademo. At the police department, the woman at the front desk said that she did not know any information and would speak with the arresting officer when he was free for a moment. We checked in with her multiple times, but she did not follow through. About forty-five minutes after arriving, I was standing outside with Rich and Jason, when Officer Short drove into the parking lot and informed us that Derrick had been transported to the police department and would be released shortly, and Ademo was being charged with a Class B Felony, Improper Influence [*]. (more…)
