Lawyer says half of protesters
pleading not guilty

Where Criminal and Civil Litigation Intersect

A lawyer with the People's Law Project said about half of the 100 people in last night's mass arrest have pleaded not guilty.

"About 50 percent, as a matter of principle, are choosing to plead not guilty and their cases are being set over to next week," said attorney David Beller. He was one of a number of attorneys who volunteered to come to court to help the protesters.

Most have been charged with failure to obey a lawful order, obstruction of justice or throwing rocks, he said.

Although two courts set up to handle DNC related arrests stayed in session all night long, the last of the protesters wasn't in court until 8 a.m. After bond is set and posted, Beller said, it takes about another three or four hours before a person is released.

"The length of time it took to be seen in court is a subject of complaints," he said. "Also the lack of access to lawyers."

Beller said attorneys who went to the detention center known as Gitmo on the Platte were turned away, as they had been told they would be.

"We have tried to go out to the temporary facility to see clients and have been turned away," he said. "We were turned away again last night."

Attorneys were able to see the arrested protesters after they were brought to court in the City and County Building.

Protesters had been up all night when they came to court, Beller said.

"They were horribly exhausted.Most had not slept at all, of it if they have, maybe for 20 minutes. They just had not slept."

City attorneys were offering guilty pleas with $140 fine plus $41 court costs, a five-day suspended jail sentences and six months unsupervised probation.

Most of the protesters are young, between ages 20 and 24, Beller said. "The vast majority are college students. They are very politically driven and impassioned. They want to get out of jail but most are not able to make the $500 bond."

Beller said he had been at some of the protests since they began over the weekend and thought that "police showed a great deal of restraint. I really was impressed with them."

But something changed last night.

Beller said protesters were "sitting peacefully on the lawn eating in Civic Center when police began lining up in chains and began snaking through the whole group."

After that, people ran into the streets. "It was clear the action of individuals changed," he said.

Beller said he was at the protest and did not hear an order to disperse, although one may have been given elsewhere. He said most of the protesters were surrounded in front and back and could not move. "There was no where to disperse," he said. "There was nowhere to go."

"Police took a much harsher approach toward the end of the day yesterday," he said.

Asked whether this may signal how the rest of the protests go, Beller replied, "It may. I hope not. I hope they go back to operating the way they were before this happened."