Dismiss all charges or we will clog up courts

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/10/17/2011-10-17_we_will_clog_the_courts_dismiss_charges_or_else_lawyers_say.html

Next up for protesters: Occupy the Courts.

Lawyers representing about 800 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in the past month demand that prosecutors drop the charges.

If not, they say they won't deal and will insist on going to trial - putting pressure on the already overloaded Manhattan criminal courts.

"I'd like to suggest to the DA's office the appropriate way to deal with these cases is outright dismissal," said defense lawyer Martin Stolar.

"The leverage is, we take them all to trial."

Stolar and other members of the civil rights-focused National Lawyers Guild plan to meet today with prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office to lay out their position.

At least some protesters who face charges - including two out-of-towners arrested last week - will demand their day in court.

"I didn't do anything wrong," said Zach Welch, 20, of upstate Rochester, after spending 24 hours behind bars for resisting arrest and wearing a mask depicting the 16th century anarchist Guy Fawkes. "I was expressing my rights."

Vance's office had no comment on the meeting and said all cases are reviewed individually.

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In general, officials said, first-time offenders on minor crimes are routinely offered what is known as an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal" - meaning charges are tossed after six months if the offender is not re-arrested.

The vast majority of protesters were issued summonses for violations and desk appearance tickets for minor crimes, officials said.

They said 47 people were arrested and held overnight. So far, five of those cases have been dismissed because of a lack of evidence.

If the DA pursues the remaining cases, protesters will be marching into the courtrooms en masse beginning Nov. 15 - when 60 demonstrators are set to appear before one judge.

The Manhattan criminal courts deal with about 90,000 cases a year, and prosecutors say they will have little trouble absorbing the extra work load.

Court officials had a different take.

"Is it a strain on the system? Yes," said courts spokesman David Bookstaver. "But the reality is the judges will deal with it."

There is precedent for dismissing civil disobedience cases.

In 1999, prosecutors dropped charges against 1,166 people - including celebrities and politicians - busted over a 15-day period in the wake of the fatal police shooting of immigrant street vendor Amadou Diallo.

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Raymond Castello, the former assistant district attorney who handled those dismissals, said the circumstances around the current arrests are very different.

The Diallo protesters, he said, were arrested peaceably.

"Their plan was to get arrested, and they did it in a way that was least inconvenient for all parties," Castello said.

"Resisting arrest makes a difference," he said.

[Russell Kanning]

cool
makes sense to camp out in the courts if necessary