Press Release: aquittal in Des Moines

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Press Release: aquittal in Des Moines
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PRESS RELEASE
Catholic Peace Ministry
Des Moines, IA
July 11, 2007

Five Iowa peace activists who were arrested for trespassing in the Des Moines office of Senator Charles Grassley on February 26, 2007 were acquitted today bringing a happy ending a three-day jury trial.

Sally Frank, Kathleen McQuillen, Jeff Leys, Dixie Webb, Chet Quinn, Brian Terrell, Elton DavisSally Frank, Kathleen McQuillen, Jeff Leys, Dixie Webb, Chet Quinn, Brian Terrell, Elton Davis

A six-citizen jury of their peers (five women and one man) returned a unanimous not guilty verdict on charges of trespassing by Des Moines activist Elton Davis, Des Moines minister Chester Guinn, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Iowa Program Coordinator Kathleen McQuillen, Catholic Peace Ministry Executive Director Brian Terrell, and activist Dixie Webb.

The Des Moines Five were found not guilty despite their admission that they had, in fact, refused an order by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security officer to leave Sen. Grassley’s office. The five argued that they had a First Amendment Constitutional right to have their grievance heard by the Senator, and that the Senator and his staff had refused to hear their grievance.

“EACH NAME IS A GRIEVANCE”

After members of Sen. Grassley’s office staff refused to make eye contact with the activists and ignored their presence in the office, Terrell, Guinn, and others reverently read aloud from lists of names of American servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq and lists of the names of Iraqis killed since the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 and the subsequent occupation.

“We brought a grievance,” said Terrell, “we brought a list of names. Each name is a grievance.”

A Homeland Security officer entered the room, interrupted the reading of the names of the dead, and Des Moines Police Department officers were summoned to arrest the activists.

Terrell was allowed to read the text of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to the court for “judicial notice.”

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Terrell also read a dictionary definition of the word “abridge”.

The jury’s not guilty verdict suggests that the jurors agreed that the peace and justice activists freedom of speech, their right to assemble, and their right to have their grievances heard by their elected representative had been abridged by their arrest and removal from Sen. Grassley’s office.

Terrell and Davis represented themselves (pro se) in District Court Judge Odell McGee’s courtroom. Guinn, McQuillen, and Webb were very ably represented by noted Des Moines civil and human rights attorney and National Lawyers Guild member Sally Frank. Frank teaches law at Drake Law School in Des Moines.

The court case had attracted national attention even before the not guilty verdict was returned. According to a July 11 article in The Hill, “The Senate passed a resolution Monday by unanimous consent granting two of Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) staffers legal representation in a case involving anti-war protesters in one of his Iowa offices.”

On May 21, U.S. Magistrate Judge Celeste F. Bremer dismissed charges of “obstructing a federal office” that had also been filed against the activists in federal court. “The Court finds that the ends of justice are served by granting the dismissal …, and finds that such dismissals are in the best interest of the public,” Judge Bremer ruled.

Eleven other Occupation Project protesters, charged with trespassing the same day in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office, were sentenced last week and ordered to pay $190 in fines and court costs, according to local press reports.

And last week, 20 other protesters from the organization were arrested at the Cedar Rapids offices of Grassley and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). They refused to leave the building when the offices closed and each was charged with trespassing, according to local press reports. Most of those arrested in the two offices, including Terrell and several of those arrested in Grassley’s Cedar Rapids office February 26, will appear in Linn County District Court, Cedar Rapids, on Friday, July 20 to plea to these charges.

The Occupation Project uses nonviolent civil disobedience actions to demonstrate against the Iraq war. Since the campaign was initiated in February, more than 320 citizens have been arrested around the country for occupying the offices of their representatives in Congress.

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