Robin Hooding Lawsuit Continued Despite Objection

by | Jun 2, 2013 | 1 comment

robin-hood-of-keene-justice_pnnWhile a motion to continue is hardy any indicator, Robin Hood and friends’ legal conflict is off to a promising start as the first disagreement in the city’s lawsuit against the Merry (wo)Men was found in the light most favorable to the defense. Having first received the foundational paperwork of the lawsuit on May 9, last week the six defendants received notice of a preliminary hearing scheduled in superior court for Monday, June 10. I had been scheduled to be out of town for a few days leading up to and on the hearing date, so I filed a motion to continue, asking for either all parties’ hearings to be rescheduled, or to have a hearing scheduled solely for myself. No stranger to courtrooms myself, I have filed countless motions to continue with courts across New Hampshire, and have not yet had one denied. It was not surprising that the city attorney might object, and reading his objection, you would think that the situation was dire.

As stated in the City’s Verified Petition for Preliminary and Permanent Injunctive Relief, the seriousness of the situation warrants immediate consideration and action by the Court; the City and its Parking Enforcement Officers would be prejudiced by any delay in this proceeding.

What exactly will ‘the city’ present as damages in this case? They have yet to cite a specific claim against Robin Hooders other than vague allegations of ‘harassment’. Attorney Mullins seems so convinced that Robin Hooders pose such a potential threat that even delaying their preliminary hearing one day could mean chaos in the streets of Keene. Mullins’ objection was denied, the continuance granted, and a new hearing date has been set for June 11 at 2:30pm.

Hearing on Administrative Inspection Warrant 2013-05-29

by | May 30, 2013 | 0 comments

As you may recall, my tenants were raided last summer as a pretext to enter the Keene Activist Center. The city people claim they are only interested in fire safety and whether the home was being run as a “lodging house”. I challenged the validity of the original administrative inspection warrant and this was the hearing on that matter, that was originally set to be a full trial. The full trial date is now pending the judge (Runyon) deciding the warrant was valid in the first place:

VICE.com’s Follow-Up on Rich Paul

by | May 30, 2013 | 2 comments

2013_04_20_freerichHarry Cheadle over at Vice.com wrote up a follow-up article on Rich Paul and his struggles with prohibition laws: 

Last month I wrote about Rich Paul, a pro-marijuana activist in Keene, New Hampshire, who was facing 81 years in prison for selling marijuana. Rich had refused plea-bargain deals (including one that would have let him walk away with no jail time) because he wanted to stand up for his principles—weed is basically harmless and you should be allowed to smoke it and sell it to your friends. “Somebody had to stand up and say that this is wrong, and I thought I might well be that guy,” Rich emailed me. “I took the risk and now we’ll find out whether I bet my life well.”

Two days after he wrote that, the jury found Rich guilty, sending him to prison for a long, long time for a nonviolent crime.*

That’s not so strange, because Rich essentially admitted that he sold a whole bunch of weed to an FBI informant. His defense didn’t rely on convincing anyone he wasn’t breaking the law—he wanted to convince the jury that the law itself was wrong. In other words, he was leaning on the principle of jury nullification, which is the idea that juries can vote to acquit people who have clearly broken the law if they think that the law shouldn’t exist in the first place.

“I wasn’t shocked,” Rich admitted to me in a video recorded from jail. “Jury nullification is a long shot.” Even so, he’s planning on appealing to the New Hampshire Supreme Court on the grounds that the judge misled the jury on what nullification is.

Read the rest at: http://www.vice.com/read/rich-paul-is-appealing-his-81-year-prison-sentence-for-selling-pot

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PNN: Wisconsin Raw Milk Nullification Victory

by | May 28, 2013 | 0 comments

vernon_hershberger_m28Derrick J Freeman’s Peace News Now broadcast for Monday, May 27 covered the mostly victorious trial result of Vernon Hershberger, an Amish farmer accused of unlawful distribution of raw cow milk in Wisconsin. The trial lasted a full week, and ended with not guilty findings on three of the four charges against Vernon. Also covered in PNN’s episode #122 is Medea Benjamin’s successful interruption of an Obama event to speak out against the terrorism of drone warfare.