court

In a tumultuous, somewhat stunning turn of events, David McKay's guilty plea was accepted in federal court in Minneapolis Tuesday, a day after Judge Davis indicated that he was unlikely to accept the plea on the basis of evidence pointing to entrapment by FBI informant and horrible human being-extraordinaire Brandon Darby at the original trial.  McKay had been motivated to plea at the last minute - supporters and courtwatchers did not know about the plea until Sunday evening - when the state compelled co-defendant Bradley Crowder to testify against him, threatening additional prison ti

Tuesday, January 20th at 9am Cheri Honkala, the national organizer for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), will be held on trial by jury for her arrest on Harriet Island preceding the Republican National Convention. In the days prior to the RNC, as PPEHRC member organizations from around the country began arriving in the Twin Cities for the March For Our Lives, PPEHRC organizers established "Bushville." Bushville was erected on Harriet Island so that it would be visible to members of the media and delegates from around the country.

The State's elaborately staged legal farces are really spinning into full gear this week:

• UPDATE on Monday's scheduled grand jury in Minneapolis : The Grand Jury subpoenas for the six Texas activists have been withdrawn.
• Last week, CRASS, the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure held a press conference to publicize how the City of St. Paul has refused to release the 6,000 hours of surveillance footage to defense attorneys. After the State was defeated in the August 2007 Critical Mass case via a few cell phone video clips, it's clear they need to manipulate the evidence in order to run out the clock, waste RNC arrestee legal supporters' time & effort, and scramble public perceptions about what happened.
• Court solidarity needs your help! Many cases are going on at Ramsey County Courthouse and CRASS Court Watch needs people for Monday, Tuesday, and onward. Email rnccourtwatch@gmail.com for more info.
• Help Dave Mahoney: The authorities are scapegoating Dave Mahoney (saying he is a literally a Terrorizing Finger Pointer - not to be confused with the famed Terrorist Fist Jab). It's all part of their PR strategy. Defeat the propaganda. TC Indymedia's added a button to his site.
• It sounds like Bob Fletcher watched Terrorizing Dissent as he is starting to make remarks about the young woman with the flower who got ruthlessly maced on September 1st on Kellogg Blvd. However the local press seems afraid to even mention the name of the film Indymedia helped put together.

With these and more important events unfolding, Twin Cities Indymedia wants to encourage more people to plug in and help cover what's going on. Indymedia currently has a number of HD video cameras which could be used by Indy journalistas to cover demos and other events. Please contact us if you're interested. (More broadly, working on further expanding Twin Cities Indymedia is direly needed - including organizing a real video collective). More notes from the events of last week, and upcoming events that might be of interest to IMCers, below.

UPDATE 10/13: The six were given a new date to continue the hearing: Nov. 10 at 1pm. However, this date may prove to be irrelevant as discussions are underway to consolidate the eight individual cases into one.

Monday, six of the RNC 8 will make appearances in Ramsey County court. Eryn Trimmer, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor and Max Specktor are all scheduled for omnibus hearings beginning at 1pm; Monica Bicking and Robert Czernik are scheduled to appear in a continuation of their hearings from earlier this month. This is the most notable day in court yet for the 8 anti-RNC organizers who are charged with felony conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism under Minnesota's Patriot Act. The appearances are at the Law Enforcement Center at 425 Grove (near bus lines 21 and 74 from Minneapolis).

In conjunction with the hearings, a call-in day has been organized to presure St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (651.266.8510), Ramsey County Attorney and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Susan Gaertner (651.266.3222) and St. Paul City Attorney John Choi (651.266.8710) to drop all charges against the RNC 8 and the 800+ other arrestees. See the links below for more info.

Phone-In Against Phony Charges: All day 10/13 | Court Watch 1pm | RNC8.org | Anti-War Committee | RNC '08 Arrestee Support |