Judge grants stay for teen antiwar protesters
Four Ithaca teenagers have been granted a temporary reprieve from the jail time they were scheduled to begin serving last Friday.Marie Grady De Mott, 18, Oona Grady DeFlaun, 18, Ana Grady Flores, 17, and Anna Ritter, 17, were sentenced last month to serve four weekends in jail for their role in a Dec. 21, 2002 "die-in" at the military recruiter's office in the Cayuga Mall. They had been convicted by Lansing Town Court Justice William Burin on charges of third-degree criminal trespass, a class B misdemeanor.
The four juvenile defendants filed the initial papers for an appeal Jan. 5. At a hearing on Monday, Tompkins County Judge John Sherman granted a 60 day stay on the sentence. He also agreed to give them free access to a public defender in the intervening time period up to March 12 because of their economic status.
So, not only did Judge Sherman (a liberal Democrat) stay their sentences pending appeal, but he ordered the taxpayers to foot the bill for these little punks' legal expenses (What? They don't have parents?).
