by Ian | Dec 17, 2015 |
James Cleaveland After His Court Victory
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
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!
by Ian | Dec 17, 2015 |
Yesterday the trial of Free Keene blogger James Cleaveland for recording police wrapped up with an excellent closing argument by defense attorney Paul Garrity (video still to come) advocating jury nullification. The jury was sent to deliberate and could not reach a verdict by the close of court. This morning, the jury was back to deliberating at 9am – the fact that it’s taking this long could be a good sign for James.
Activists were out front of the court this morning for the fourth day in a row holding signs and offering jury nullification information from NHJury.com. Yesterday, Union Leader reporter Meghan Pierce showed up to cover the trial. Here’s her report, published in today’s Union Leader.
Any developments in the case will be tweeted by Darryl W Perry here. Stay tuned for the latest – will the jury acquit our hero?
Here’s a pic from this morning’s outreach:
Jury Outreach Activists @ Cheshire Superior Court 2015-12-17
by Darryl W. Perry | Dec 16, 2015 |
On December 14, 2015 Judge Brian T. Tucker of the Strafford Superior Court denied the injunction brought by the NH Department of Education and Attorney General against the Croydon School Board. The Department of Education and Attorney General claimed that four Croydon students would be irreparably harmed if allowed to remain at the Newport Montessori School as part of the town’s school choice program.
The website School Choice for New Hampshire reports, “The final hearing of Croydon vs the NH DOE is scheduled for January 13, 2016.” Adding, “You can subscribe to our events page so you receive notification as soon as it is posted.”
The order from Judge Tucker is available on the NH School Choice website.
by Ian | Dec 15, 2015 |
Darryl W Perry is tweeting live from the trial of Free Keene blogger James Cleaveland, happening today and possibly tomorrow (Wed) in Keene at Cheshire superior court:
by Ian | Dec 14, 2015 |
NH Jury Activists Outside Cheshire Superior Court
James is facing two “Class A” misdemeanor charges with a possibility of up to two years in prison for being arrested while recording video of police at the scene of a suicidal man in the summer of 2014. The charges are “disorderly conduct” (the state’s favorite catch-all charge) and “resisting arrest”.
James has already had a bench trial at Keene district court, the video of which can be seen here, and was found guilty. District court judge Edward J Burke sentenced him to 1.5 years in jail, suspended, plus a $625 fine. After sentencing, James opted for his right to a jury trial “de novo”, which means, “from the beginning”. So now, not quite a year later, he is being given that trial.
This morning was jury selection. Nearly all of the jury pool of about 58 people had received the NH Jury trifold last month. (In Cheshire county, petit juries are empaneled for two months.) Usually the jury outreach process involves handing out flyers and opening the door for folks, but in addition today it included activists holding signs featuring phrases like, “2 Years 4 Filming?”, and “Filming the police is not a crime!”
More activists are expected to be on-the-scene tomorrow morning at 8am for further sign-holding, with the trial starting at 9am and expected to last two days. If you can’t make it in person, live tweets will be available here at FreeKeene.com and later the full trial video will be posted.
by Ian | Dec 11, 2015 |
Justin Paquette Mugshot
During the Chalk Wars of 2014, we were introduced to an unsavory character in town named Justin Paquette. The Boston native was accompanying James Michael Phillips when Phillips attacked a peaceful man for chalking in downtown’s Central Square, knocking him into the fountain and causing serious injury. While Paquette did not commit the attack, he was definitely pals with Phillips, grabbed at people’s cameras (attempted assault), and threatened people, claiming gang affiliations.
Later that summer, Paquette and some of his gang attacked Derrick J on the streets near the courthouse. After his associate broke Derrick’s camera by knocking it off his tripod, Paquette assaulted Derrick and stole his cell phone from him.
Now, Paquette is in the news again. Today’s Keene Sentinel features his mugshot and an article alleging that he robbed the West St. Circle K and the Winchester St. Sunoco early this morning, while brandishing a knife.
UPDATE 5pm 2015-12-11 – The above paragraph is in dispute. A local business owner familiar with Justin Paquette says that the Paquette in the photo below from the Chalk Wars is not the same Justin Paquette who was arrested for robbery this morning.
UPDATE 2015-12-18 – There are indeed two Justin Paquettes in Keene. Though, as it turns out, both are in trouble for armed robbery. Full story here.
Justin Paquette (arms outstretched) Threatens Innocent Chalkers
A quick check of the members list of local activist hate group, “STOP FREE KEENE!!!“, shows Paquette is still a member. Perhaps they will finally be removing him from their facebook group after this, given their official policy is anti-violence, though they didn’t bother to remove Paquette after his caught-on-video attack against Derrick.
Hopefully Justin will get his life straight and stop associating with negative influences including people like the husband of SFK!!! group admin Andrea Parkhurst Whitcomb, Gregg, who pled guilty to check fraud in 2013, Jacqlyn Atwater-Yeager who pled guilty after defrauding her boss of hundreds of thousands of dollars and is still a member of SFK!!!, Travis Hobbs Parrott who has attacked peaceful Robin Hooders in the streets and is still a member of SFK!!!, and neighborhood menaces Matthew and Jennifer Schmidt, also SFK!!! members. (more…)
