Our Moment in Court
December 5, 2007
Another day. Another court appearance.
Yesterday we made the snowy trek to Burlington’s District Court to stand before a judge and T.J. Donovan, the state’s attorney, and very proudly plead “not guilty” to the charges of trespassing at the offices of our congressman, Peter Welch. Basically, it was a three-hour trip for a mere 30-seconds of the court’s time. And I got to utter these words to the judge who seemed like she wasn’t going to have much patience for any more: “I am not guilty, your honor. And I will be seeking a jury trial and invoking the necessity defense.” Next.
T.J. Donovan – sorry, but that’s just one cool name for a prosecutor – wants to cut a deal of some type. He told us before the court hearing that he’d be willing to drop the charges if we agreed to do some community service. Well, T.J., our actions WERE a community service. So our response to him was: Declare our attempts to meet with our congressman and ask him to stop funding the war a court-recognized “community service” and we’ll sign on the dotted line for a dismissal. Otherwise, let’s go to trial.
Personally, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to pick a jury and put on a trial that will seek to prove that our minor legal transgressions were necessary to prevent the larger legal evils of the Bush war and Congressman Welch’s continued double-speak on whether or not he’s going to continue funding it. And how much fun will it be to serve Welch and his staff subpoenas to be witnesses at the trial? I guess we might get another chance to ask him some “yes or no” questions, huh? Priceless.
People spend thousands of dollars to get Welch’s attention by way of campaign contributions – he’s now collected nearly $700,000 for his next campaign. This trial – with all the free legal help we’re being offered – will be, in comparison, a very cheap way to have a little one-on-one with the Congressman.
Welch has handled this all with the kind of fumble-fingers that one would expect from a rookie. Remember, when we went to his office in October we we’re simply asking for a meeting with him. He refused. And then his staff instructed the Burlington Police to have us arrested.
But Welch quickly realized that having constituents arrested for trying to meet with him looked kind of old-school Soviet Union and all. And so he agreed to meet with us in public, mostly to stem the tide of his political capital oozing like a sieve from a perplexed left. But, just to show that the vengeance will be his, Welch has never requested that the trespassing charges be dropped.
Whatever, Congressman. We’ll just keep picking the scab that is your very confused and confusing record on Bush’s war with Iraq. And, who knows, someone might even use the trial as an opportunity to announce a challenge to your re-election bid. This should be fun.
–
While awaiting our 30-seconds of court time yesterday, the very affable T.J. Donovan took the time to introduce us to Ian Carlton, the chairman of the Vermont Democratic Party. No, Carlton wasn’t there to discuss Donovan’s promising future as a statewide politician someday in the near future. Instead, Carlton was there to go head-to-head with his fellow Dem on a legal matter before the court. Carlton, you see, is a practicing attorney and – thus – had some non-partisan work to do involving a client who got caught stealing. Let’s just hope for the Dem Party’s sake that Carlton is a smoother party chair than he is a lawyer. In the three minutes of court time we witnessed, Carlton seemed to be doing his best Jerry Lewis imitation. Carlton, for example, got softly reprimanded for filling out the wrong paperwork for a plea deal and then almost fell into the lap of Donovan while tripping before the court. And why, oh why, did his clumsiness remind me of a certain political party and its relation to important issues of the day? Just wondering.
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you,bad,bad,boy.
Too bad local taxpayers will have to pay for this court time. Hurting people who can ill afford taxes isn’t exactly moral.
Too bad a judge will never let you raise a necessity defense in front of a jury. Ought you have known this prior to getting arrested?
Also, it’s a true moral shame that you are gumming up the courts while people sit in jail waiting for trials. Would you be willing to meet with those people to explain in person why their trial dates are delayed by months because of the docket backlog that you are contributing to?
There are so many people sitting in jail waiting for trials in courts that are seriously backlogged. You closed two military recruiting centers. Mission accomplished. TJ Donovan gives you an offer that would allow you to accomplish you original mission without hurting those who are awaiting their day in court.
It’s obvious this is about your ego first and foremost, and not about justice.
Blogger is right. You’re now hurting the poor who can’t afford a good lawyer to get them out of jail. You’re no better than the government.
It’s sad that TJ Donovan comes across as the rational person in your post!
A disproportionate number of minorities are sitting in jail having to rely on over-worked public defenders.
You choose to get arrested and can afford a lawyer. Yet you are accepting quality representation for free. Wouldn’t it be moral to ask these lawyers to volunteer their time to help minorities and the poor?
These comments are interesting. I don’t think that I would agree with 99% of what these posters are saying, but I do absolutely agree with the court issue.
Our local state courts are not instruments of war. That can’t be disputed. Gumming up the courts with these trials will hurt the innocent.
Did you know that jurors only get paid $30/day? The self employed person who is struggling to support their family will suffer by being forced to serve on a case such as this. How about the people with serious cases who will suffer from an even greater court backlog?
I applaud you politics. It goes too far, however, when you are hurting the innocent by abusing a system that has absolutely nothing to do with the war.
Vermont is a great state. It’s overwhelmingly against the war. Why hurt Vermont and Vermonters? It’s sad.
Seeking a jury trial is our right. If you’d like to take that right away, call your legislator and start the process. Let me know how it goes.
Michael,
Yes, having a jury trial in the upcoming matter is your “right.” But that doesn’t make it the moral thing to do.
Chief Justice Reiber was just on VPR saying how understaffed the courts are and how this is leading to backlogs and delay.
The previous posters have good points. I feel sorry for the poor person that is struggling to put food on their table. You’ll have them earning less than minimum wage by being forced to serve on a jury? How about the person sitting in jail waiting for their day in court? You’re more than happy to add to the backlog when others have to sit in jail? You’re fine with them losing what little they have as they rot in a cell?
Let’s face it… as much as we don’t like it, it was Bush’s “right” to invade Iraq. Congress paved the way, and the courts have upheld it. Just ask the innocent Iraqi civilians how glad they are that Bush exercised his “right.” Your last comment makes you sound no better than Bush, and that’s scary. When you lose sight of harm to innocents, something horrible has happened. Why do you sound so much like the government? I’m scared.
You could be channeling your energy for such good - and yet you choose a path that will harm others. What has gone wrong, Michael?
If exercising a “right” hurts innocents, then I, for one, won’t exercise that right. And I’m proud to say that. We have to practice what we preach, and find ways of peaceful protest. If it harms innocents, it isn’t peaceful - and that can’t be debated.
Michael–take it to Judge Judy. We need to get this War on Daytime TV–like the OJ trial. (”If you’re not a twit, you must acquit”)
Peter,
Interesting that you blindly support Michael when he has written stuff like this about you:
“Peter nearly perfectly represents the kind of “lefty” who sits and bitches but never takes action. ”
Ah yes… the Snarky Boy days.
That’s because I give him slack in deference to his mental problems (horse kicked him in the head). And anyway, I’m just a follower–a celebrity groupie. After all, SOMEBODY needs to get arrested, and since Vermont has possibly the highest incarceration rate for blacks per capita, I think of Michael also as sort of a white Martin Luther King, doing his best to cut into that rascist imbalance and show America and the World that white Vermonters aren’t all just a bunch of trust-funded blogging self-centered wannabe lawyer office holding insider fascist yuppie organic pigs who censor everything in the name of good taste and PC, and then go dancing around about it til election day when they have to go vote for Barack Obama cause he once used heroin also (but he didn’t inhale it).
NOT GUILTY, I say. Case closed. (Now we can begin the search for the REAL KILLERS)
As an African-American I am offended by the above comment. It seems to imply that we need a “white here” to solve our problems.
First of all, Michael, while a good friend, has never focused his energy on African-American issues. Sure, we may be made an argument against the war, (a disproportionate number of soldiers are African-American), but his energy is spent fighting the war. Racial equality is not his primary concern. That’s fine… we all have our place.
But Peter… your comments are insensitive at best. At worst they are racist.
Michael will get the best legal representation for free. He will fight tooth and nail to not get convicted. If he is convicted, he’ll get a fine.
And you equate him to a struggling person of color? Let me assure you that are scores of African-Americans rotting in our jails who were treated very differently.
No… Michael wants to enjoy the status his race bestows upon him.
I just don’t know how to put in words how offended I am at your comments, Peter. As a person of color, they struck me to the core.
This isn’t about race, this is about the hypocrisy in our outlook about where ‘justice’ went off to. It sure didn’t go to Iraq. You can’t have justice and democracy ‘over there’ if you don’t have it right in your own backyard. And I think those figures I mentioned about Vermont’s lopsided incarceration rates ought to show us that there’s a lot we’re missing in the justice picture.
This isn’t about race, this is about the hypocrisy in our outlook about where ‘justice’ went off to. It sure didn’t go to Iraq. You can’t have justice and democracy ‘over there’ if you don’t have it right in your own backyard. And I think those figures I mentioned about Vermont’s lopsided incarceration rates ought to show us that there’s a lot we’re missing in the justice picture, including white kids thinking heroin is ‘cool’ because THEY can GET AWAY WITH IT.
Michael, Boots, et al should think about the backlog in the courts before asking for what is their right in this case? I think not. The labelling, black and white thinking, and changing the subject shown by some of the commenters above are examples of thinking errors and have nothing to do with what happened. He’s got his right as anyone has to have a day in court. Michael is correct in that the people who joined him in the sit-in were infact doing a community service for peace and justice. Some of you guys just seem to think (as the media has done) the actions of recent weeks in Welch’s office (and of those in which some of us took part last March) are frivilous. Hardly!
“Some of you guys just seem to think (as the media has done) the actions of recent weeks in Welch’s office (and of those in which some of us took part last March) are frivilous. Hardly!”
Storming an office to demand an instant meeting with a Congressman who is not even in the building isn’t frivilous?
A simple check of his schedule would have saved you all a lot of embarassment.
Jay,
Valid issues that people have brought up concerning the unjust treatment of minorities are just “thinking errors.”??!!
Unbelievable. And people wonder why it’s so hard to be a person of color in Vermont.
Oh for Chrissake! If people, including teenage activists, are going to go to the wall and get arrested to spotlight how wrong we are as a nation, then it should follow that they have their day in court to keep the spotlight on. Talking about backlogs and the fees for jury duty is like saying: “Please be polite and we’ll get to the WAR in due time.”
What will those kids think if you say : “Well, we did it! Now let’s pay our fine, do a few hours at the Peace & Justice Center, and go out shopping for X-Mas.” Hanh? Talk about privilege.
I’m beginning to think some ’smile and wave’ Vermonters would rather see a Support Group formed, instead of a Jury.
Peter,
I was just trying to open up a discussion about how tying up court time will have an impact on the poor and minorities. Why do you need to be so dismissive to this valid concern?
It must be nice to be so sure of yourself because you’ve never walked a day in a colored person’s shoes.
All I can say is that I hope someday you can open your heart and listen. Just listening would be a start.
The plantation owners didn’t listen either. Surely you are better than they were.
I applaud those brave souls who have recognized the racial impact of these actions. This can be a pretty hostile place to post - so I thank you.
The racial impact of ‘what’ actions? Are you possibly saying (nah, can’t be) that protesting the WAR, civil disobedience about the WAR! and taking the WAR to the courts is doing more damage (or as much damage) to the poor, the Working Class, and the minorities than OUR FRIGGING GOVERNMENT is? I admit that I’ve never heard that arguement before, and I am truly ASTOUNDED. Must be cause I’m a Polack.
I can’t believe people are actually suggesting that Michael and his fellow protesters should give up their rights to a trial (on what is a fundamental issue of rights) because somehow that is oppressing the poor and minorities who are in our jails.
This is incredibly condescending and patronizing. Noblesse oblige, indeed.
If the courts have a backlog — and they have had since the 70’s when Alden Bryan tried to fix the problem — then the choice is not for some people to give up their right to a trial so that the “less fortunate” among us can have their day in court. It is for the state to finally acknowledge the problem and give the courts the resources they need to handle the backlog.
Suggesting that somehow Michael and his compatriots are of a “higher order” and have a moral obligation to step aside for those of what-a lower order?-is absurd and insulting. To everyone involved.