Here’s a 24-minute short documentary covering what we saw and what we learned. In short, one can cross to Canada with only a driver’s license and despite what the US federal government claims, you don’t need a passport to cross back into the US, but they might hassle you. Also, Derby Line, VT and Stanstead, Quebec have been hurt economically by the border-tightening that happened around 2007. Derby Line’s commercial property is nearly completely empty, and several homes are on the market for sale. Stanstead is in somewhat better shape.
Who would want to live where most of the cars on the streets are Border Patrol vehicles? That’s life in the ghost town of Derby Line, a microcosm of what will happen to the United States if the borders continue to tighten – freedom and the economy will suffer.
Hoping to overturn the illegal, discriminatory town ordinance, Lilley and MacKinnon teamed up with Free State Project early mover and attorney Dan Hynes.
Hynes’ line of questioning was interesting, specifically asking the state’s witnesses, which included three snitches and a few cops, how they determine someone is a woman. The all answered something about breasts, which is inconclusive. Without inspecting genitalia, which the police did not do, there would be reasonable doubt that the person is female.
Hynes argued, in a ten-page motion to dismiss (complimented by jovial Judge James M. Carroll) the ordinance is unconstitutional and violates equal protection and the right to free expression. Further, he argues the ordinance is also illegal because New Hampshire is not a “home rule” state and unless the state legislature authorizes towns to pass laws of their own, they cannot legally do so.
The last time we heard about how many taxpayer dollars the city of Keene has spent on their frivolous lawsuit to try to crush the rights of Keene’s Robin Hooders, it was December of 2013, the year they filed the suits against us.
Keene’s Robin Hooders were feeding expired parking meters in relative obscurity until the city filed its suit in May of 2013. That suit blew up into a huge storm of publicity, making Keene’s government the laughingstock of the world.
Attorney Charles Bauer is getting very rich from taxpayer dollars.
Determined not to show any good sense, the city gang continued to lavish tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on failure after failure in this case. They hired the go-to law firm for all NH municipalities, “Gallagher, Callahan, and Gartrell” (the same firm that lost the Gericke case, which upheld the right to record police). Hey, it’s not like it’s the city’s money – they stole it from Keene’s productive class – the people.
Now the case is going back to the NH supreme court on appeal, but mayor Lane claims the law firm is going to cut them a break on this appeal and do it pro-bono. How generous of Bauer’s firm! (Robin Hood attorney Jon Meyer has been pro-bono from day one.)
If you love liberty and want to work towards making more of it happen, why not do it in the best place for it? New Hampshire is already more free than other places and there are thousands of libertarians and voluntarists, many of whom love jury nullification, that are moving there as part of the Free State Project. Why not join us and help more liberty happen, sooner?
In a clear victory today, Free State Project early mover James Cleaveland was found not guilty of “resisting arrest” and six of twelve jurors voted not guilty on the “disorderly conduct” charge! Judge John C Kissinger spoke with the attorneys after the verdict and relayed that the jurors were locked 6-6 on the disorderly charge for all five hours of their deliberation. As a result, a mistrial was declared on the “disorderly” charge, meaning it may go to retrial.
Earlier this year in a bench trial for the same charges, Keene district court judge Edward J Burke found James guilty of both counts. As is his right, James appealed the two class-A misdemeanor charges to a jury trial, even though the sentence from Burke was suspended on condition of good behavior. Ultimately James said he was glad he went to jury trial, as he’s now been vindicated completely on the “resisting” charge, where state police officer Phillip Gaiser lied, claiming James lunged at him and also stepped back 3-4 steps when he tried to cuff him, a claim that was proven false by the video and audio evidence in the case.
In post-trial comments for Free Keene, James said that the video and audio he recorded was critical to his success. Otherwise it would be several cops’ word versus his word, and jurors generally believe police to be honest. Though it was costly in time, stress, and thousands of dollars in legal fees, James is glad he stood up for the right of free press.
Jury Outreach Activists @ Cheshire Superior Court 2015-12-17
Kissinger allegedly said that James choosing to testify made a good impression on jurors, but that having a larger camera would somehow have given him better credibility. All jurors refused activists’ offers of $60 for a post-trial interview.
This is the biggest jury trial success of any liberty activist thus far tried in New Hampshire. Major thanks to all the stellar activists who braved the cold to hand out NHJury.com trifolds to the jurors and also hold signage reflecting the amount of time James was facing (two years in prison), a detail never allowed to be revealed in a criminal trial.
Full video of the trial is still to come to Free Keene. Stay tuned!
