Posted on 10/17/2011 8:27:47 PM PDT by Qbert
Lawyers representing about 800 Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in the past month demand that prosecutors drop the charges.
If not, they say they won't deal and will insist on going to trial - putting pressure on the already overloaded Manhattan criminal courts.
"I'd like to suggest to the DA's office the appropriate way to deal with these cases is outright dismissal," said defense lawyer Martin Stolar.
"The leverage is, we take them all to trial."
[Snip]
Court officials had a different take.
"Is it a strain on the system? Yes," said courts spokesman David Bookstaver. "But the reality is the judges will deal with it."
There is precedent for dismissing civil disobedience cases.
In 1999, prosecutors dropped charges against 1,166 people - including celebrities and politicians - busted over a 15-day period in the wake of the fatal police shooting of immigrant street vendor Amadou Diallo.
Raymond Castello, the former assistant district attorney who handled those dismissals, said the circumstances around the current arrests are very different.
The Diallo protesters, he said, were arrested peaceably.
"Their plan was to get arrested, and they did it in a way that was least inconvenient for all parties," Castello said.
"Resisting arrest makes a difference," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Put them in a tent city in the middle of the desert until the judge can get to them.
Rule of Law is out the window. We're in an age of pure power politics now, and the folks who are willing to play hardball pretty much win by default.
Why do I have to obey the law when none of these liberal groups do? :(:(:(:(:(
Go to trial. Fine. No bail. Defendant remanded. Next case.
Cash bonds. I mean the max possible. They shouldn’t let them out on anything but cash bonds. Then let them fool around to their hearts content.
The question should be, Who is paying for the lawyers?.
If privately paid, let them spend their money and proceed to trial if they want to.
If public defenders, bargain them out and stop spending taxpayer money on these people who are exercising their constitutional rights to protest.
Rack’em and Stack’em. No deals, no bail. Ketchup and baloney sandwiches 3 times a day.
thugs.
How I wish they had the cojones to do that!
Till trial, general population, Rikers Island.
Sounds good to me.
I believe it's a non-profit (so, the usual suspects...)
These chuckleheads won’t be doing it in Texas unless they want the full bill.
They have a constitutional right to reasonable bail in cases like this. I hope you are not suggesting their constitutional rights be violated.
On the other hand, it’s not to smart to tell the DA you are going to take all the cases to trial because once the fist 2-3 get convicted and get jail time, the rest of them will do a plea bargain.
I think they got some open bunks at Gitmo.
I have a feeling that much of that is coming.The court does not like begin threatened!
Scumbag lawyers like this are giving the other 2% a bad name.
Not only do they want free everything, but they want to commit crimes and not be held responsible.
True libs.
Hold them in Riker’s until their trials, and if found guilty, give them the maximum penalty plus court costs.
I got your Cloward-Pliven right here and it will be found in a cell on Riker’s.
Call their bluffs, then be sure to let the taxpayers know how the OWSer bums are draining their wallets.
Not only do they want free everything, but they want to commit crimes and not be held responsible.
True libs.
Hold them in Riker’s until their trials, and if found guilty, give them the maximum penalty plus court costs.
I got your Cloward-Pliven right here and it will be found in a cell on Riker’s.
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