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 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…)
by Ian | Dec 10, 2015 |
Bitcoin is big in NH
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” – Bitcoin
There’s no doubt that HB 666 (yes, 666) is not a good bill. However, it did not prohibit the sales of bitcoin, as the headlines have claimed. What it actually does is adds a definition of “convertible virtual currency” to the “money transmitter” statutes. Money transmitters are companies doing business selling and sending “stored value”, which now includes virtual currency in New Hampshire.
Despite that broad definition, state banking department attorney Emilia Galdieri told the Union Leader (in a sane, excellent article on this) that the new statutory changes affect money transmitters, like Western Union, Coinbase, or MoneyGram, but is not aimed at person-to-person transactions, consumer-to-business, or bitcoin ATMs.
Bitcoin Vending Machine at the All-New “Route 101 Local Goods” at 661 Marlboro Rd in Keene
NH’s liberty and bitcoin activists are not happy they were caught off-guard on this and are already working to repeal it and help protect bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into the future. If you are one of the people who’s acting shocked that this could happen in the “Free state”, I’d like to remind you that despite the amazing groundwork the early movers for the Free State Project have laid here, the official move has yet to begin. This is not a free place yet – it’s just better off than others and a good starting point for a freedom movement. We need more people to join the FSP and move to New Hampshire. The FSP is nearing 90% of our goal of 20,000 liberty activists pledging to move to NH, so completion is right around the corner. If you’ve been on the fence about joining the most amazing and successful liberty migration, just DO IT.
by Ian | Dec 8, 2015 |
UBER Grandma Stephanie Franz, courtesy CBS Boston
FOX 25 Boston’s Kathryn Burcham filed this excellent report on the continuing assault on peaceful Seacoast UBER driver Stephanie Franz, the 63-year-old grandmother who has now been ticketed several times for driving people places without a government permission slip.
She, despite facing $3,500 in fines from the city for her peaceful civil disobedience, is remaining steadfast, and is demanding her trial. Kudos to UBER for providing Stephanie with legal representation, gratis. Here’s the FOX report, which is very positive and fair towards her:
Here’s the full interview FOX 25 conducted with Stephanie, as recorded by Free Keene blogger Darryl W. Perry, who attended last night’s activities: (more…)
