Friend, blogger, and fellow activist Graham Colson walked into the Cheshire County House of Corrections today. He was sentenced to 60 days for the “crime” of Contempt of Court. Before he checked in, we had a chance to chat about the events that led up to this moment. Ian Freeman and I also reflected on our own jail experiences and reminded Graham that life is always what you make of it–even when you are living in a cage.
This week’s stellar installment of the AKPF #1 series features footage captured during the annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, held between June 22-29 in Lancaster, New Hampshire. The gathering was noteworthy for the prolific use of alternative currency by attendees, where vendors readily accepted not only cryptocurrency, but also the elusive Obamacoin, which traded at both three for one dollar as well as the spot price of four per dollar. As usual, the event set a record for participants in attendance.
Wednesday, June 18th 2014 – 10am – Activists convened at the NH Supreme Court to hear Rich Paul’s attorney argue for an appeal. That means even though Rich Paul lost his original trial, he can ask a higher court to hear arguments to decide if the original ruling was wrongly decided. If they decide to go forward with the appeal, Rich will have a whole new trial. The Supreme Court’s ruling is where laws are challenged and clarified. Whatever they decide has the potential to set future precedent.
This week, liberty activist Graham Colson was tried for a “contempt of court” charge that he received while out on bail after being arrested on a later-determined-unconstitutional no trespass notice from the “city of Keene”. In legal land there is a concept known as the doctrine of the “fruit of the poisoned tree”. My understanding of this is that if, for instance, the police raid your home on a bad warrant (say they lied to the judge to get the warrant), that any evidence collected based on that warrant cannot be used against you. It’s the “fruit of the poisoned tree”, and so charges must be dropped.
However, this doctrine appears to not apply to the “orders” of the judge. In Graham’s case, he was arrested for violating the no trespass notice from the city that banned him from Central Square. He was let out on bail conditions that included no contact with a couple of parking enforcers. He was later arrested for walking through Central Square and talking to a parking enforcer. For this act he was charged with “contempt of court”. Then, last summer, the district court’s judge Edward Burke threw out the no trespass letter as unconstitutional and illegal. Since the no trespass letter was illegal, shouldn’t the contempt case be thrown out too, since the bail conditions were originally issued on a case based on an illegal no trespass notice? Maybe in a system actually oriented towards justice – not this one.
So, the contempt charge went to court this week and Graham was found guilty, despite a valiant attempt to defend the charge by Garret Ean. Graham will be turning himself into the Keene Spiritual Retreat, aka the county jail to serve 60 days. He will have five months suspended over his head for two years. All because the city police were handing out illegal no trespass orders. Yeah, justice! Here’s the full video of the trial:
Below is a playlist of raw videos from today’s Legal Land adventures:
Monday, June 16th 2014 – 10am – Today there was a trial in Keene at the new courthouse. “The State of New Hampshire” charged political activist Graham Colson with “Contempt of Court” for speaking to a Meter Maid while doing his activism.
The activism, called “Robin Hooding”, involves walking around feeding the expired parking meters. He says it saves people from tickets.
But Meter Maid Alan Givetz had a big problem with the Robin Hooders. So much of a problem that he quit over the situation. He called the police on Graham for speaking to him, and the court defended the unconstitutional ban on free speech.
This week’s stellar installment of the 
