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Legal Updates 06/21/02 Update from: R2K Legal Nearing its second year defending activists arrested at the RNC protests in the summer of 2000, R2K Legal is still kicking. There are eleven people with outstanding cases still in the courts. Three of those people have felony charges. What follows is an update on these remaining cases and yet-unresolved civil suits: Timoney 3 Felony charges were recently reinstated for the 3 defendants by the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. Lawyers for the defendants have appealed the re-instatements to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. If the Supreme Court is willing to hear the case, a new date will be set for filing briefs, and a long stage of that process will begin. If they send it back to Superior Court, the trial will go forward with the felony charges, and the next step will be choosing a judge for the trial. If this is the case, things would likely proceed much more quickly and the trial date could be within 3 to 6 months. Because the lawyers are waiting to hear from the Supreme Court, there are no dates set right now for anything. Dates will be set once the Supreme Court makes a decision. We want to note that 2 out of the 3 defendants have chosen not to work closely with R2K Legal. However, a group has formed to provide further support specifically to the third defendant, Camilo Viveiros. The group, Friends of Camilo, will work closely with R2K Legal to provide supplemental support and raise awareness about his case: r2klegal.org/friendsofcamilo/. Please see the last legal update for a brief background on past court proceedings. Two Misdemeanors Two defendants (one a legal observer) who were violently arrested, went to their appeal trial on June 3, 2002 to fight multiple misdemeanor charges. They were offered, and accepted, a plea bargain for one summary (similar to a traffic ticket) and 10 hours of community service each. Both activists felt it would be constructive to take the deal and put energy into other important work. Van Case Eight defendants who were arrested in the van traveling from the puppet warehouse to Center City Philadelphia are still appealing their original conviction on multiple misdemeanors by Municipal Court Judge Seamus McCaffery. Six defendants are appealing for a jury trial, and two are appealing on a "Writ of Cert," essentially claiming an unfair trial due to bias by the judge. Here's a relevant City Paper article from January 18, 2001. Kate Sorenson Kate is appealing her conviction on the misdemeanor charge of Criminal Mischief (for background, see the March 13, 2001 R2K Legal Press Release). Civil Suits The Puppet Warehouse civil suit is still in progress. There are currently 24 plaintiffs in the R2K Legal led suit against the City of Philadelphia. The owner of the warehouse is still engaged in a separate civil suit as is a volunteer from "Everybody's Kitchen" arrested in the warehouse. The fallout from these civil suits has been disturbing to say the least. The city and their law firm -- funded by an insurance policy covering the city for civil rights violations -- went on a fishing expedition to get information on various organizations and activists. Everything from organizational membership lists to peoples' computer hard drives were subpoenaed. To read more on this, see a recently published article by the Philly activist paper The Defenestrator, "The Ghost of R2K: A strange tale of subpoenas, compliance and their joyful negation". Other civil suits still in progress include the R2K Medics harassment suit, and a wrongful arrest suit by John Sellers of the Ruckus Society. In solidarity and struggle, R2K Legal |
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