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Press Releases
R2K LEGAL COLLECTIVE PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2001
CONTACT: Kris Hermes, R2K Legal (215) 925-6791; Kate Sorensen, ACT UP Philadelphia (917) 514-5579;
Lawrence Krasner, R2K Lawyer (215) 636-9500
http://www.r2klegal.org
RNC DEFENDANT AND ACCUSED "RINGLEADER" KATE SORENSEN ACQUITTED OF
FELONY
CHARGES
Sorensen, originally held for ten days on $1 million bail and charged
with ten
felonies and ten misdemeanors, was acquitted of nineteen of those
charges and
has claimed victory after seven months of prosecution
(Philadelphia, PA) Community leader and ACT UP member Kate Sorensen
was
acquitted today of felony charges stemming from her August 1 arrest at
the
Republican National Convention (RNC). Sorensen was arrested in the
midst of
protests focusing on the high rates of incarceration of youth, people
of color,
and the poor, the racist death penalty, and the denial of decent health
care
for prisoners.
Following a three-day jury trial, Sorensen was found not guilty of the
felonies
of which she was accused, including riot, risking a catastrophe, and
conspiracy. She was found guilty of one misdemeanor, criminal mischief.
"My
family and I thank those who have supported me over the past months of
uncertainty," said Sorensen. "I'm ready to go back to what I'm supposed
to be
doing, which is being an AIDS activist."
Sorensen was the first felony defendant to go to trial out of over 300
people
facing charges related to the protests during the RNC. Singled out as a
"ringleader" by law enforcement and held for ten days in prison,
Sorensen was
originally charged with ten felonies and ten misdemeanors.
"She was found guilty of a crime that was not supported by any of the
evidence," says Sorensen's lawyer Lawrence Krasner "and the conviction
will
easily be thrown out on appeal."
After being followed by the police for two hours on August 1, Sorensen
was
arrested while walking through Love Park talking on a cell phone.
Evidence
turned over by the prosecution showed that the FBI had been following
Sorensen
since April 2000. In the week before trial, the Philadelphia Department
of
Licenses and Inspections showed up at Sorensen's house three times.
"The city was willing to hold Kate for ten days on $1 million bail and
then put
her in jail for over twenty years for damages that ended up amounting
to a
fender-bender. It's time to move on," says Danielle Redden of the R2K
Legal
Collective.
An AIDS activist since 1988 and a longtime proponent of nonviolent
action,
Sorensen has been in local and national campaigns for social change for
more
than twenty years. During Sorensen's trial, ACT UP was receiving
national
attention and recognition for life-saving work on global access to
essential
medicines. Today, over 400 ACT UP members rallied at the South African
Embassy
in Washington, D.C., to support the South African government as they
are sued
by over 35 pharmaceutical companies for the passage of a law to
increase access
to generic medication.
There are ten remaining RNC felony defendants awaiting trial and facing
possibly years in jail. Trials will continue over the next few months.
The
District Attorney has singled out some of those defendants for
especially
aggressive prosecution. For the three defendants allegedly involved in
an
incident with Police Commissioner Timoney, most of the charges had been
thrown
out at a preliminary hearing. The prosecutor has put the case on hold
by
appealing that decision to a superior court. This appeal will likely
delay the
trial for over a year.
BACKGROUNDER BIOGRAPHY OF KATE SORENSEN
Kate Sorensen was born in Torrance, CA in 1962. Sorensen attended
California
University of the Arts, where she studied fine arts, printing and
publishing.
At sixteen, she got her first job in a print shop and worked in the
printing
industry for nearly 20 years. A West Philadelphia homeowner and artist,
Sorensen currently works as a union organizer for 1199-C, the hospital
and
health care workers union.
As a teenager, Sorensen joined efforts to pass the Equal Rights
Amendment, and
was involved in other key feminist activist campaigns. In the eighties,
as her
friends began to die of HIV/AIDS, Kate Sorensen became involved in the
earliest
efforts to bring attention to the epidemic. In 1986, Sorensen joined
ACT UP Los
Angeles, an all-volunteer AIDS activist group. Her first AIDS protest
was a
successful attempt to secure beds for AIDS patients at LA County
Hospital.
Sorensen and other activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience
at the
Los Angeles City Council. The county agreed to open an AIDS ward, one
of the
first in the nation.
Sorensen was a founding member of Queer Nation Los Angeles, a
grassroots
organization that drew attention to the impact of homophobia in the
United
States. Her work with Queer Nation included organizing a large
demonstration at
the 1991 Academy Awards to protest the negative depiction of gays and
lesbians
in cinema and to educate American society about gay and lesbian lives.
At the
historic 1993 Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender March on
Washington,
Sorensen led an all-women's march as a member of the National ACT UP
Women's
Network.
In 1994, Sorensen moved to Philadelphia, where she became an active
member of
ACT UP Philadelphia, the nation's largest grassroots AIDS activist
organization. She has helped organize numerous successful campaigns to
address
the needs of women, low-income people and people of color, and other
groups
hard-hit by the epidemic. These campaigns include persuading the FDA
and the
pharmaceutical industry to increase and improve research on women with
HIV;
coordinating a public poster project utilizing the art and stories of
homeless
people living with HIV; and designing an internationally-distributed
World AIDS
Day information kit on the lack of AIDS drugs in poor nations. She has
worked
with recovering drug users to increase access to information about HIV
prevention and treatment.
Last summer, Sorensen served as the organizer for the March for
Universal
Health Care, a rally that united unions, health care providers, and
medical
consumers in the call for equitable health care for all Americans. She
also
traveled to Durban, South Africa, to participate in the 13th
International AIDS
Conference, where she served as press liaison for Women at Durban, a
satellite
conference that provided workshops and trainings by and for
HIV-infected women,
including many from local townships and neighboring African countries.
Recently, Sorensen has served as a link between anti-globalization
activist
groups and the communities of color impacted by unjust trade and social
policies. In April 2000, Sorensen facilitated the participation of over
500
African-American HIV-positive Philadelphians in the core rally and
march at the
Washington, D.C. Mobilization for Global Justice. In June 2000, she
helped put
together a groundbreaking training for low-income people and people of
color in
Philadelphia, designed to increase their skills as advocates in their
communities.
Currently, Sorensen is continuing to work with ACT UP Philadelphia and
the
Nobel-prize winning organization Doctors Without Borders, on a
highly-successful campaign to put affordable AIDS medications and other
lifesaving drugs within the reach of the millions of HIV-infected
individuals
in the developing world.
--030--
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