The Advocate - May 2005 Index

City of New York to Pay $230,000 to Settle RNC Contempt Proceeding
Jeff Senter

On April 15, 2005, the city of New York settled the contempt proceedings that were initiated by New York State Supreme Court Judge John Cataldo on September 2, 2004 when city officials violated multiple orders demanding the release of RNC arrestees. Judge Cataldo had issued the release orders in response to habeas corpus writs filed by attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and the Legal Aid Society the prior day.

Judge Cataldo’s release orders covered 560 people who had been in the custody of the city and the NYPD for well over 24 hours by the early afternoon of September 2, 2004. Attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild and the Legal Aid Society were retained by 151 of those 560 people to pursue civil contempt fines against the city for failing to comply with the Judge’s release orders.

Lawyers for the arrestees argued that the city had deliberately delayed the processing of people arrested on and before August 31 for up to two days during the Republican National Convention (RNC) until President Bush had left the Convention. Had the contempt hearing scheduled for April 18, 2005 gone forward, the city would have faced the possibility of being found in criminal contempt, in addition to the civil fine. Instead, the city agreed to pay $231,200 to the arrestees and for attorneys’ fees
“This is just one step in addressing the outrageous violations of the constitutional rights of the over 1,800 protestors and bystanders arrested, often in indiscriminate mass sweeps utilizing orange netting, during the RNC,” said Gideon Oliver, who was among the NLG attorneys on the Writ Squad. “The settlement specifically states that it will not bar anyone from seeking damages in other lawsuits for the city’s violations of their rights.” A federal class action suit against the city has been filed by attorneys associated with the National Lawyers Guild.

To date, the District Attorney’s office has acknowledged that over 80 percent of the RNC criminal cases have resulted in dismissals, adjournments in contemplation of dismissals, and acquittals at trial. Media accounts reported additional injustices throughout April 2005, which raises serious questions not only about the mass arrests the NYPD made throughout the RNC, but also about the ferocity with which the DA’s office has been prosecuting many of the criminal cases arising from those arrests:

* During the first jury trial arising from the RNC arrests in December, NYPD Officer Matthew Wohl testified that he observed Dennis Kyne violently resisting arrest, but a documentary filmmaker’s videotape proved conclusively that the officer was not part of the arrest at all, and that Mr. Kyne offered no resistance. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office dismissed the case in mid-trial.

* An Assistant District Attorney produced a videotape allegedly showing the arrest of Alexander Dunlop, who was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, then quickly moved to dismiss the case when Mr. Dunlop’s attorney produced another video proving not only that Mr. Dunlop neither assaulted the officer nor resisted arrest at all, but also that the videotape the DA’s Office produced had been tampered with.

* Yusuke (“Josh”) Banno, who had been arrested and charged with seven felonies for allegedly setting fire to a large green dragon float during the large march of August 29, learned that the DA’s office planned to dismiss all charges against him in light of photos provided by a Daily News photographer. The photos showed that Mr. Banno was some distance away from the incident, and could not have been involved with the fire at all.

The New York city Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild organized over 600 legal observers and over 200 pro bono lawyers during the RNC. These observers, along with Legal Aid Society attorneys, have represented the vast majority of the RNC arrestees in connection with their criminal defense cases.

Jeff Senter is a member of the National Lawyers Guild.