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The first criminal trial related to
last November’s Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) demonstrations
ended soon after it started last Tuesday after one of the arresting
officers failed to appear at court.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s
Office sought an extension to prosecute Ernesto Longa, a legal observer
who was arrested during demonstrations outside of Miami-Dade County Jail
on November 21, after one of the arresting officers failed to show up.
“The two were essential witnesses,”
said Ed Griffith, spokesperson for the state attorney. Rather than
risk a dismissal from the judge, the state attorney’s office dropped
the charges, he said. Judge Rosa Figarola then ruled a “nolle
prosse.”
According to Kris Hermes, a
spokesperson for Miami Activist Defense, the judge went against the
extension because she was “fed up.”
“There were 200 folks gathering at
the Miami-Dade County Jail,” Hermes said in a phone interview from New
Orleans. “We were holding a press conference… [and the county police]
declared that the assembly was illegal and demanded that we disperse and
that was when things got a little rough.”
Longa, a 33-year-old law student from
St. Thomas University, said he was a legal observer working with the
National Lawyers Guild to document police actions during the FTAA
demonstrations and was not a protester. On November 20, when police from
38 different law enforcement agencies moved in on demonstrators in
Downtown Miami following an attempt by some protesters to take down a
fence protecting the Hotel Inter-Continental, Longa said he took notes
and sent the information to the NLG.
Longa said he was doing the same thing the next
day when demonstrators gathered in front of the Miami-Dade County Jail
to demand that charges be dropped against the arrested demonstrators. He
even wore a fluorescent hat that read “Legal Observer.”
Although a press release from MAD
described the November 21 gathering as “a peaceful vigil,” Detective
Robert Williams, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police Department,
said demonstrators moved out of a designated protest area, into a public
street and even entered the jail area. “Traffic was being
blocked,” he said. MDPD gave an order to disperse. Anyone who
didn’t obey the order be they demonstrator, journalist or legal
observer were arrested, just as on November 20, Williams said.
Longa, though, insists that when the
order to disperse was given, demonstrators backed away from the jail
chanting, “We’re dispersing. We’re dispersing.” “The police didn’t like
the way the demonstrators were dispersing,” Longa said.
And so, while he stood on the
sidewalk and chatted with reporters, the police rushed in with plastic
shields. Rubber bullets weren’t fired but police used pepper spray
liberally, he said. During the melee a demonstrator fell on top on him
and the next thing Longa knew “I had an officer point a barrel at my
face who said, ‘get the fuck down on the ground’ and that was what I
did.”
Longa said FTAA demonstrators were
separated from the rest of the jail population. However,
demonstrators were also handcuffed for hours after their arrest. When
Longa asked a guard why he was handcuffed for 10 hours, he replied that
he was told to do so to FTAA protesters, Longa said.
“I spent two days in jail,” said
Longa. When those arrested for FTAA-related cases were released
their arrest papers were given “an FTAA stamp.”
Longa said he was originally charged
with unlawful assembly and resisting arrest without violence. Later his
report was amended to include disobeying a lawful order, he said.
When he asked his public defender,
Kathryn Strobach, what the worst case scenario was for the three charges
she replied, a year in jail.
“They [the state attorney’s office]
initially offered a deal which I rejected,” Longa said. The offer:
pay $175 to take a class on proper behavior and community
service. “I was doing community service [when I was arrested],” he
said.
The state’s main witnesses against
Longa were Officer Christopher Moon and Officer Jeffrey Schmidinger of
the MDPD. Moon was present but Schmidinger, although he was subpoenaed,
failed to show, Griffith said.
Griffith also debated Longa’s
assertion that the judge dropped the charges against him. The
state attorney’s office simply backed off for “strategic reasons” and
reserved the right to prosecute him again.
While admitting he was only a law
student, Longa replied that he heard the judge say “nolle prosse” and
doubted the judge would change her mind in giving the state a time
extension.
According to records provided by the
Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, 231 FTAA-related demonstrators were
arrested between November 9 and November 22, peaking on November 21 with
111 arrests. (Eighty-two people were arrested on November
20.) MAD said more than 60 people were arrested during the
Miami-Dade Jail demonstration.
Advocates for demonstrators have
claimed in the past that the State Attorney’s Office was pressuring FTAA
defendants to take pleas in order to lessen their chances of facing
civil claims later. One tactic, they claimed, was denying some
demonstrators public defender counsel.
Ridiculous, Griffith said. The
Miami-Dade State Attorney Office was only against the use of public
defenders in cases where jail time was sought. Public defenders are
normally not given to defendants charged with minor misdemeanors, he
said, and to give public defenders to all FTAA demonstrators would be
“special treatment.”
According to Hermes, many of the
charges filed against FTAA demonstrators were either dropped or reduced
“as a result of rulings in pre-trial hearings.” Hermes said that out of
28 felony cases, 12 have been dismissed and 11 have been reduced to
misdemeanors.
Records provided by State Attorney’s
Office state there was a total of 30 felony FTAA related FTAA cases, 194
misdemeanor cases and 7 juvenile cases. Griffith said the office is now
updating its records on FTAA cases.
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