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St. Paddy's Day 7 Trial Begins
August 23, 2007 6:42 PM
The City of Colorado Springs called 13 witnesses in municipal court Thursday to try and prove that seven people deliberately obstructed the St. Patrick's Day Parade in the city last March. The defense says that's simply not true. The City says it was just trying to maintain public safety, the defendants say their first amendment rights were stepped on.
The trial continues Friday, two more witnesses are scheduled to testify before closing arguments. It will then be up to a jury of four women and two men to decide the guilt or innocence of the so-called St. Paddy's Day 7.
The eight-hour day in court Thursday began with jury selection, several potential jurors were dismissed after they said they'd have a hard time being impartial because they already feel that the defendants were wrong for their actions last March.
On March 17 a group of about 30 people marching in a parade entry near the Bookman Bookstore's green van was proceeding down Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs when parade organizers asked them to leave the parade. Several of the group insisted they had every right to be there, organizers asked for police assistance and when it was all over seven people had been arrested for obstructing the parade.
Those are the handful of facts that the prosecution and defense agree on in the case. The defendants insist they had a permit from parade organizer John O'Donnell to march as the Bookman entry. But one of O'Donnell's volunteer parade marshals testified that some in the group told him they were with the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Coalition, he says he relayed that information to O'Donnell, who said the Coalition was not permitted to march. The volunteer marshal, Doug Hague, says that's when he asked Springs police for assistance in removing the marchers from the parade.
Defense attorney Greg Walta, working for free under the auspices of the American Civil Liberties Union, says O'Donnell and his volunteers knew good and well who the Bookman group was, because it was led by Eric Verlo, who led a very similar entry in the 2006 parade. O'Donnell affirmed that he invited Verlo to march in this year's parade, and that he issued a permit to Verlo to participate, just like he did in 2006. Verlo owns the Bookman bookstore and is also one of the most vocal anti-war activists in Colorado Springs. In 2006, marching as the Bookman group, Verlo and others participated in the parade wearing distinctive lime green t-shirts adorned with large peace symbols, and carried pro-peace banners. Walta, their attorney, argued that they wore the same t-shirts and carried the same signs this year, and, because there were no incidents in 2006, they had no reason to expect any trouble.
But parade organizer O'Donnell says he didn't recall any pro-peace or anti-war banners from the event in 2006 - the defense showed photos of that event that clearly showed such banners. O'Donnell also says he didn't see the Bookman entry this year until his volunteer marshals told him about it over a cell phone after the parade had already started. He says he told them to ask the group to leave because he believed they were the Justice and Peace Coalition, who didn't have a permit. O'Donnell says his main concern was public safety, as the crowd this year was two- to three- times larger than in years past, and because this year's new downtown parade route passed several bars where he'd seen people drinking. He said the thought that the mix of anti-war banners in a military town where people were drinking was going to result in a beer bottle being thrown.
City prosecuting attorneys Scott Patlin and Brett Johnson argued that when Verlo signed the permit or contract with O'Donnell to be in the parade this year, he knew that it stated in two places that "social messages" were not allowed in the parade. Defense attorney Walta countered that the term "social messages" is vague, and that Verlo had signed the same contract in 2006. He had O'Donnell confirm that he had never contacted Verlo after the 2006 event to tell him his entry's message was inappropriate, or that any rules had changed, and therefore, it was reasonable for Verlo to assume that he could march this year with the same message and not have any problems.
Furthermore, Walta argued, O'Donnell and his staff had ample time to review Verlo's entry while it was in the parade's staging area north of down town, and should have asked them to exit prior to the event actually starting. O'Donnell said that in a perfect world that would have happened and that, 'every day since this happened I wish I was in the staging area and would have done that."
Beyond the arguing over what constitutes an appropriate social message, the Defense also appeared to be trying to convince the jury that the parade itself wasn't really obstructed. Relying heavily on large color photos and a map of downtown, Walta said again and again that most of the activity that resulted in arrests happened in the east lane of the parade route, and that even as the arrests were happening, the rest of the parade entries were able to proceed past the melee in the west lane.
Among the witnesses called today were four Colorado Springs Police officers involved in the incident. None of the defendants are required to testify if they don't want to, and at this point none are, but their attorney Greg Walta says he's reserving the right to call one or more if he needs to.
Posted by Eric Whitney on August 23, 2007 6:42 PM | Permalink
