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 Prosecutors pardon the final puppeteers 12/14/00 - by Linda K. Harris and Craig R. McCoy - Philadelphia Inquirer The District Attorney's Office yesterday withdrew the last 33 cases of people arrested inside the puppet warehouse last summer, bringing down the curtain on one of the most controversial police actions during the Republican National Convention. "As far as the warehouse, it's over for them," Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon said after a meeting in his chambers with prosecutors and defense lawyers. Philadelphia police raided the warehouse on Aug. 1, arrested 75 people on misdemeanor charges, handcuffed them, and left them in sweltering buses for five hours before taking them to jail, where they were held with bail set as high as $35,000. Last week, the District Attorney's Office withdrew charges against 32 people arrested inside the warehouse, at 4100 Haverford Ave. Ten others opted for an early deal from the district attorney of six months' probation and a clean record at its completion. Yesterday, Assistant District Attorneys Joseph LaBar and Trevan Borum announced the decision to drop the last of the cases. A week before the convention, undercover state troopers infiltrated the massive brick warehouse that protesters had rented to build puppets, floats and banners for demonstrations during the convention. The four state troopers testified during almost four days of pretrial hearings that demonstrators there talked of slashing police tires, built devices to block intersections, and planned to deploy satirical puppets as Trojan horses for street blockades. DeLeon, who has been handling the pretrial disputes in the warehouse case, ruled that the prosecutors could move to trial only against people whom the undercover troopers could identify and link with a crime. But last week at the district attorney's headquarters and again Tuesday night at the Curran-Freehold Correctional Facility, those troopers spent hours looking at photos and failed to link the few protesters they were able to identify with any crime. "To their credit, the District Attorney's Office did the right thing by agreeing that there was no basis to prosecute anybody," said Bradley S. Bridge, a senior public defender. "Something is dreadfully wrong when people are searched, arrested and prosecuted when there was no basis to search, arrest and prosecute." Last month, the district attorney withdrew charges against warehouse owner Michael Graves and his office manager, both of whom were swept up in the raid. Civil-liberties lawyers have sharply criticized the police's afternoon raid on the warehouse. They said the raid's real goal was to lock up those inside for fear of what they might do - not for crimes they had committed. The defense lawyers were particularly critical of the affidavit in support of the search warrant - which asserted that the protesters were financed by Communists. Police Commissioner John F. Timoney termed the criticism "nonsense" and said: "We will work it out in court." A Jan. 3 trial is scheduled for another group of 10 protesters who were arrested inside a van driven by one of the undercover troopers. Linda K. Harris's e-mail address is lharris@phillynews.com To see the original article with a picture of the puppeteers and puppets go to: http://inq.philly.com/ content/inquirer/2000/12/ 14/city/PPROTEST14.htm |
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