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TRIAL DATES SET FOR 8 ANTIWAR DEFENDANTS IN TACOMA
By Mark Jensen

** Port militarization resistance cases advance in Tacoma Municipal Court **

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
August 17, 2007

TACOMA, Washington -- Trial dates were set today for eight defendants charged in Tacoma Municipal Court with various offenses stemming from the port militarization resistance (PMR) protests at the Port of Tacoma in March.

The protests, which continued for ten days, occurred when Fort Lewis moved equipment for the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division through the Port of Tacoma as part of President George W. Bush's unpopular "surge" of U.S. troops to Iraq. (To date, eighteen of the 4/2 Brigade's soldiers have lost their lives there.)

The PMR protests were the occasion for an extraordinarily militarized police response that astonished observers and on occasion inflicted violence on peaceful protesters, including tear gas and rubber bullets. (Videos seen by hundreds of thousands on YouTube have given the protests nationwide notoriety. To view these, search for "Tacoma" and "port" on YouTube. [http://www.youtube.com]) It was clear from arguments made by Attorney Lawrence A. Hildes of Bellingham, who represents all of the defendants in court Friday, that the defense intends to highlight police conduct in the upcoming trials.

The trial of Jeff Berryhill, Caitlin Esworthy, and Walter (Wally) Cuddeford, the first of the 37 PMR arrestees to be detained, will begin on Mon., Jan. 14, 2008. A separate trial of Cuddeford for allegedly disrupting the meeting of the Tacoma City Council, where he appeared to express his displeasure at having been tased three times by Tacoma police in the course of his first arrest, will begin on Wed., Jan. 23, 2008. A third trial, beginning Mon., Feb. 11, 2008, will join the City of Tacoma's prosecution of five defendants charged with failure to disperse at two different PMR protests on the nights of Mar. 9-10 and Mar. 12-13: Peter Ryan, Sky Ogawa Cohen, Jesus Aristeo Lopez, Jesse Paul Schultz III, and Fiona Elizabeth Thompson.

The trial dates were set after Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh rejected Hildes's motions to dismiss the cases. Friday afternoon's court session at Tacoma's County-City Building lasted two hours and twenty minutes and also saw the arraignment of an additional PMR defendant, Brendan Dunn of Olympia, who pled not guilty to a charge of public disturbance. Dunn, a veteran of the PMR protests in Olympia in 2006, is a member of Olympia Students for a Democratic Society.

Sparks flew on several occasions between Hildes and City of Tacoma attorney Charles Lee as Hildes poured scorn on what he said was a retaliatory effort of the City of Tacoma to protect itself from charges stemming from police misconduct. In some cases, Hildes said, charges were filed only after individuals filed complaints against the city in anticipation of future lawsuits. In another bizarre twist, the case against Cuddeford involves the charge of "misdemeanor assault on an officer," an offense that "doesn't exist," Hildes said. The attorney maintains the charge is being brought only because county prosecutors declined to pursue an assault charge that in Pierce County superior court, where the offense would be an automatic felony. (The most serious offenses that Tacoma Municipal Court has jurisdiction to handle are misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor cases.)

Hildes also signaled an intention to argue that the Tacoma City Council's Rule 9 (b) limiting the content of public comment ("All speakers during Public Comment or Citizens' Forum, in the discussion, comments, or debate of any matter or issue, shall be courteous in their language and deportment and shall not engage in or discuss or comment on personalities, or indulge in derogatory remarks or insinuations in respect to any member of the Council, or any member of the staff or the public, but shall at all times confine their remarks to those facts which are germane and relevant, as determined by the presiding officer, to the question or matter under discussion") is clearly unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

"Annoying or insulting speech is a misdemeanor in Tacoma," Hildes told the judge. "I'm flabbergasted. We had a revolution 230 years ago against a government that did not allow itself to be criticized. Under the First Amendment, criminalizing protected speech is unconstitutional."

Hildes is also attempting to force the City of Tacoma to disclose what undercover intelligence police used against PMR protesters. "The talk of intelligence smacks of secret evidence and innuendo banned by the Fifth Amendment," he said. When City of Tacoma Attorney Charles Lee said the city did not even want Hildes to interview unidentified undercover officers because he had been seen at the protests and might in the future be able to identify undercover officers, Hildes took offense. "I deeply resent my ethics being impugned. And you can stop smirking, Mr. Lee." Lee complained to the judge about "personal attacks," but the avuncular Judge Haugh smoothed over the quarrel. "We're O.K., we're going to get to the merits," he said, soothingly. Haugh deferred ruling on the matter of discovering undercover police, asking Hildes first to "make a showing" of the relevance of that evidence to the case. "That's acceptable to us," Hildes responded.

The next court hearing in the PMR cases was set for 1:30 p.m. on Wed., Sept. 19, regarding the cases of defendants Berryhill, Esworthy, Cuddeford, and Dunn.

--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) and of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.