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Brelo Protesters Released from Jail on Memorial Day

Arraignment before Judge Marilyn Cassidy, Cleveland Municipal Court

Cleveland Municipal Court held a rare Memorial Day session this (MON) morning so more than four dozen people arrested over the weekend could go home.   They had been protesting the acquittal Saturday of a Cleveland police officer who shot two unarmed suspects in 2012.  Ideastream’s Mark Urycki reports.

 

Fifty-five men and women were arraigned on charges of Failure to Disperse stemming from a protest march at a popular outdoor café area in downtown Cleveland Saturday night.  Most pled no contest and Judge Marilyn Cassidy gave them all this sentence.

 “Thank you, maximum fine $150, no jail days.  Do you understand?”  Yes. “Credit for three days, sentence satisfied, sentence suspended, you can step back, thank you.”   

Defense attorney James Hardiman said the police went too far locking up the protesters for two days.

HARDIMAN    “Well I think they’re over reaching quite honestly because they could have easily have not charged anyone and just shooed them out of areas they thought they should not have been in.  They chose to make the arrests and for people who feel they did not do anything wrong or commit any offense we’re here to defend them.”

Urycki   the charges were reduced from what?

HARDIMAN  “Chargers were initially Failure to Disperse  which is a misdemeanor of the first degree.  It was subsequently, on the part of the city, reduced to a minor misdemeanor, which is almost akin to a traffic ticket.” 

Several private defense attorneys turned up in court on Memorial Day to provide free legal representation.  One was Gordon Friedman.

“There’s no reason why the people who were arrested should have been held 48 hours without bond.  They should have been released immediately.  Some of them committed nothing; some of them committed minor misdemeanors.”  

Most of the protesters pled No Contest.  Only one person pled guilty.  20 pled not guilty and will return to court for trial.The judge suspended their sentences with time served.