Judge Clears Court for Trial and Sentencing of Blackwater Protesters
Dec 11th, 2007 by admin2
Friday, December 07, 2007 From Kim Williams and Steve Baggarly
Here’s the local piece on yesterday’s trial. There is also an article at dailyadvance.com called “7 Blackwater Protesters Found Guilty” by John Henderson. It lists all of our home addresses which is interesting and may result in our recieving some mail? Now we wait for a date for a jury trial (every case in NC can be appealed and go to jury after the initial bench trial). In Currituck Co. that court is only in session once every 3 months, and our case likely won’t be given priority. It could be a good while before we return. By clearing the court during our trial the judge was consistent with the national censorship of the war in Iraq where, since the US invasion and occupation, millions of Iraqis have been killed, maimed, forced from their homes, and driven mad by the war. We see and hear just about none of that here. Our stance is that we are all responsible as Americans for virtually destroying an entire nation that has never done anything to us. Blackwater and the whole US military apparatus must leave today, and tonight we must begin massive reparations. We’ll let you know the next court date when it comes.
In Advent hope,
Steve
Blackwater protesters sentenced after judge clears courtroom
By BILL SIZEMORE, The Virginian-Pilot
C December 6, 2007 | Last updated 11:07 PM Dec. 5
CURRITUCK, N.C.
In a courtroom closed to the press and public, protesters were sentenced to jail Wednesday for re-enacting a Baghdad shooting incident at the front entrance of Blackwater .
They said they will appeal the verdicts, partly on the grounds that they were denied their constitutional right to a public trial.
Currituck County District Judge Edgar Barnes took the rare step of clearing the courtroom after trying one of the protesters, Steve Baggarly of Norfolk, in public. The remaining six were then tried, convicted and sentenced behind closed doors.
The judge gave no reason for his action.
The seven received jail terms ranging from 10 to 45 days and were fined $100 each. They said they will not pay the fines. One was ordered to pay $450 restitution to Blackwater for damage to its property.
All were released pending their appeals.
After the trials, Baggarly speculated that the judge closed the courtroom to silence the group’s anti-war rhetoric.
“He didn’t want people influenced by our message,” Baggarly said. “There have been hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq. If we’re going to speak about that, nobody is allowed to hear it. Obviously the system feels threatened by that. It loves darkness.”
Katy Parker, legal director of the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she had never before heard of a similar action being taken by a North Carolina judge.
“It’s a clear violation of constitutional rights, not only of the defendants but the press and public,” she said. “They have a right to a public trial, so any trial that goes on behind closed doors is a farce.”
In the Oct. 20 demonstration at Blackwater’s Moyock headquarters, the protesters drove a small station wagon, covered with simulated bullet holes and smeared with red paint, onto Blackwater’s property.
They also smeared red handprints on two Blackwater signs.
The scene was intended to mimic that in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, when an Iraqi doctor and her son died in a fusillade of gunfire as their car approached a Blackwater diplomatic convoy.
They were among 17 Iraqis killed in the incident, which prompted a federal grand jury investigation and a demand from the Iraqi government that Blackwater’s security contractors be banned from the country.
The seven protesters were convicted of second-degree trespassing. Six were also convicted of resisting arrest, and one of injury to real property. Several went limp when they were arrested and had to be dragged from the scene.
During Baggarly’s trial, he was repeatedly cut short by the judge when he tried to discuss the morality of the Iraq war and Blackwater’s role in it. The only issue up for discussion was trespassing and the related charges, the judge said.
“We feel like Blackwater is trespassing in Iraq,” Baggarly told the judge. “And as for injuring property, they injure men, women and children every day.”
The others convicted were Beth Brockman of Durham, N.C.; Mark Colville of New Haven, Conn.; Peter DeMott of Ithaca, N.Y.; Mary Grace of Madison County, Va.; Laura Marks of Ayden, N.C.; and Bill Streit of Louisa County, Va.