Feds Called in to Nail St. Pat's Day 4 & Other Anti-War Resistance Updates

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday June 30, 2004 13:18

by Teresa Grady - Ithaca Catholic Worker

c/-Magnificat House 105 2nd. St., Ithaca, New York 14850 USA

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They're on Trial For Us, We're on the Streets for Them!

ITHACA , NEW YORK, USA-- Four Ithacans accused of pouring blood on property at a military recruiting station during a 2003 antiwar demonstration learned Monday that they face prosecution in a federal court.

"We are willing to testify to what we know and what we've done, any place at any time," said Clare T. Grady, 45, a defendant.

District Attorney George Dentes informed Teresa B. Grady, 38, Clare Grady, Peter De Mott, 57, and Daniel Burns, 43, that he dismissed all charges pending in Tompkins County Court as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York agreed to begin prosecution.

The federal court judge still has the opportunity to review the case and decide whether to dismiss it or present it to a grand jury, said Bill Quigley, a Loyola University law professor who provided legal advice to the defendants.

"It's extraordinarily unusual for a district attorney to ask the federal court to take the case after admitting he doesn't think he would get a conviction," Quigley said.

The charges had been pending since a mistrial was declared in April when a Tompkins County jury could not reach a unanimous decision regarding third-degree criminal mischief charges that Teresa Grady, Clare Grady, De Mott and Burns faced. The charges stemmed from a March 17, 2003, incident in which the four defendants gathered at the military recruiting station at Cayuga Mall in Lansing to pour their own blood on a U.S. flag, posters, carpets and windows.

The four defendants, who used legal advisors as they represented themselves at the trial, relied on their own beliefs as they argued that their actions were done in hopes of ending the killings in Iraq.

After the mistrial, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the charges "in the interest of justice," Dentes said. Dentes responded by announcing that, at his request, the U.S. Attorney based in Syracuse had become involved in the case.

"He concluded that if we used the same evidence, and had the same rulings, during a trial in Tompkins County Court, we'd probably end up with another hung jury," Dentes said.

Although the charges at the federal level have not yet been determined, a trial at the federal level will likely focus on the defendants' intent to damage property during the demonstration. At the federal level, the judge may choose not to allow the defendants to use their political views in testimony, Dentes said.

"We think that the jury focused on the political ideology instead of the facts in this criminal case," Dentes said.

For a trial at the federal level, a jury would be convened from the area surrounding the federal court instead of Tompkins County. Although Quigley said a jury can affect a case's outcome, he added that the timing may affect it too.

"I think the situation in Iraq is less popular now than it was two months ago," Quigley said.

The defendants, who have not denied that they poured blood at the military recruiting station, said even at the federal level, they expect to focus their testimony on the suffering and lives lost as a result of the war.

"If there is a trial in federal court, we will explain to a second jury why we had a right and moral obligation to take nonviolent direct action against the war," De Mott said during a phone conversation Monday.

When the motions to dismiss the charges pending in Tompkins County Court was granted by Tompkins County Judge M. John Sherman Monday, the records of the trial and case were immediately sealed.