Charges dismissed for 13 Port of Tacoma activists

author : Mark Jensen topic : Port Militarization Resistance | Port of Tacoma

City prosecutors learn the difference between a pedestrian on a sidewalk and a vehicle in traffic

by Mark Jensen

On July 18, a Tacoma judge dismissed thirteen cases stemming from last March's antiwar protests on the grounds that the statute under which defendants were charged was inapplicable. Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh's ruling dropped to ten the number of still unresolved cases stemming from March 2007 Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) protests during which police made a total of thirty-seven arrests.

The protests, which continued for ten days, occurred when Fort Lewis moved equipment for the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division through the Port of Tacoma as part of President George W. Bush's unpopular "surge" of US troops to Iraq. As of July 8, fifteen of the 4/2 Brigade's soldiers have been killed in Iraq and 108 have been wounded, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.

The PMR protests were the occasion for an extraordinary militarized police response that astonished observers and on occasion inflicted violence on peaceful protesters. Videos seen by hundreds of thousands on YouTube have given the protests nationwide notoriety. (To view these, search for "Tacoma" and "port" on YouTube.)

Judge rules that law is inapplicable

Wednesday's ruling affected only those defendants charged under Chapter 46 of the Revised Code of Washington (rcw). Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem Karl D. Haugh ruled that the statute under which the protesters were charged did not apply "to an individual where there is no traffic."

Judge Haugh received legal briefs and heard twenty minutes of legal argument on the applicability of rcw 46.61.015.

The law states: "(1) No person shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any duly authorized flagger or any police officer or fire fighter invested by law with authority to direct, control, or regulate traffic. (2) A violation of this section is a misdemeanor."

The preamble, rcw 46.61.005, states that "[t]he provisions of this chapter relating to the operation of vehicles refer exclusively to the operation of vehicles upon highways except: (1) Where a different place is specifically referred to in a given section."

The defendants were arrested while walking on sidewalks, or when there was no traffic nearby.

Attorney Lawrence A. Hildes of Bellingham, who represents many of the defendants, pointed out that in its brief the City of Tacoma provided "nothing in case law or statutory interpretation that shows this law applies to anything other than vehicular traffic."

Judge Haugh, who had raised the question of the statute's applicability at a pretrial hearing on Jun. 8, asked City of Tacoma attorney Charles Lee: "Which of these arrestees was interfering with traffic?" Pressed, Lee replied: "In the way you phrased it, the City is not alleging they were arrested for interfering with traffic."

"When someone is arrested, it comes with the potentiality of punitive measures that can affect their life for a long time, or for all their life," Judge Haugh replied. "I have the responsibility to make sure the law applies."

Courtroom erupts in applause

Lee admitted he could cite no case law applying rcw 46.61.015 to non-vehicular traffic. Judge Haugh then said: "I'm dismissing the cases against the defendants who are here on the charge of disobeying a flagman." The courtroom on the second floor in Tacoma's City-County Building, packed with defendants and their supporters, erupted in applause. "I don't want to hear any yeas or nays," Judge Haugh admonished, and the outburst subsided.

The defendants whose cases were dismissed were Charles B. Bevis, Leah E. Coakley, Dennis H. Dutton (Tenzing Karma Wangchuk), Patrick A. Edelbacher, Somerset D. Fetter, Elizabeth (Liz) Rivera Goldstein, William (Wes) W. Hamilton, Thomas McCarthy, Phan Nguyen, Gloria (Sasha Crow) J. Norton, Matthew W. Reiss III, Jody L. Tiller, and Karen Weill.

Judge Haugh set Aug. 17 as the date for further argument on other dismissal motions. With reference to a request from Hildes for discovery of the identity of seven unnamed members of an "intelligence team" cited in police reports, he gave the City of Tacoma until July 25 to respond.

Legal thicket remains

For some of the defendants, the ruling lifts a legal cloud that has been hanging over them for more than a year, since the PMR movement had its inception in 2006 in Olympia, when protesters organized against the movement of Stryker equipment through the Port of Olympia. (Geov Parrish recently reviewed the history of the movement.)

Asked how it felt to have had all outstanding charges against him dismissed, Phan Nguyen of Olympia said: "It feels great." Nguyen was arrested in Tacoma on March 11 for carrying a backpack with nothing in it but a copy of the United States Constitution.

Many of the branches in the legal thicket that has grown up around the PMR protests have yet to be untangled, however. Still outstanding are cases against ten defendants (Jeffrey Berryhill, Sky Ogawa Cohen, Wally Cuddeford, Caitlin Esworthy, Jesus Aristeo Lopez, John C. McGee, Alicia C. Portillo, Peter K. Ryan, Jesse P. Schulz III, and Fiona E. Thompson). In addition, a number of civil suits against the City of Tacoma are expected. Attorney Hildes has said in the past that the City's belated decision to prosecute some of the cases may be a retaliatory, defensive measure.

Among those attending Wednesday's courtroom proceedings was TJ Johnson, a member of the Olympia City Council. Johnson was arrested on March 11 at the Port of Tacoma while delivering a "Citizen's Injunction to Halt the Shipment of Military Material to Iraq." Charges against Johnson and 13 others arrested that day were not filed, for reasons the City of Tacoma has never explained.

Why the Port Militarization Resistance cases are important

The PMR cases involve issues of national importance. Along with the movement to impeach George W. Bush and/or Dick Cheney and the intense pressure on Congress that led to this week's all-night debate in the US Senate, Port Militarization Resistance constitutes a strand in the rope the American people are braiding in order to rein in a government that has, in the opinion of many, lost respect for essential principles of legality and constitutionality.

While the various Tacoma PMR cases differ in their circumstances, all involve protesters who objected to the use of the publicly-owned Port of Tacoma to ship vehicles, weapons, and other equipment to a military venture that has lost its political legitimacy and that they view as illegal.

Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) and of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.