Posted on 04/14/2005 11:00:40 PM PDT by RWR8189
usuke Joshua Banno is a college student from Arizona marooned in Manhattan. In his old life, he would be feeding his two chickens, riding his bike and working in the maintenance department of the student union. He would also be graduating next month.
Instead, Mr. Banno is answering phones at a Midtown restaurant, Blockhead's Burritos, to help pay legal expenses. He has fallen a semester behind at Prescott College in Tucson, and is learning more about criminal law than he ever cared to know.
The change in Mr. Banno's life dates from August, when he traveled by bus to New York City to join crowds of protesters at the Republican National Convention.
He was arrested on Aug. 29 and was charged with assault and reckless endangerment, accused of igniting a papier-mâché dragon. For months he has proclaimed his innocence, saying that in the chaos of the crowd, the police just picked the wrong person. Last week, prosecutors seemed to agree, after concluding that a police officer had misidentified Mr. Banno.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said the case would probably be dismissed.
Behind the story of Mr. Banno's legal travails, there is a personal one. It is a tale of the obstacles and financial hardships faced by an ordinary family in a case that appears likely to be dismissed, like so many others from convention week. As of last month, about 80 percent of the convention arrests had been dismissed, adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, or ended in acquittals, according to statistics from the district attorney's office.
Beyond the immediate problem of the charges, which could have brought Mr. Banno a prison term of up to seven years, money was a serious concern. His lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, took the case for a very low fee, but it would still cost thousands of dollars to take to trial.
For Mr. Banno's mother, Betty Jo Banno, who learned of his arrest while watching television at home in Prescott, Ariz., the amount of her son's bail, $200,000, came as an early shock.
"I just couldn't believe it; I thought it couldn't be real," she said, sitting on a couch in a Midtown apartment that she sublet for herself, her son and out-of-towners involved in the case. "The first thing I thought was, 'I don't have $200,000.' "
"They said, 'What do you have?' and I said, 'I can use my house as collateral.' "
Mr. Banno's friends mobilized for his defense. They held a potluck party in Tucson. One friend started a Web site. Another sold T-shirts. His college put out a jar for donations. A friend, Toby Fraser, watched dozens of hours of videotape at the National Lawyers Guild, an advocacy group for change in political and economic matters.
Mr. Banno spent six days in jail, avoiding the meat dishes and eating canned string beans, mashed potatoes and grits. He was not allowed to make long-distance phone calls, so Ms. Shroff arranged a conference call so he and his mother could talk.
Eventually, Mr. Banno's bail was reduced to $10,000. Mrs. Banno wiped out nearly half her savings to send the bail money. As the case wound its way through the legal system, Mr. Banno's trial was delayed five times, Ms. Shroff said. Mrs. Banno bought plane tickets for herself, Ms. Shroff, Mr. Fraser and four witnesses.
In January, Mrs. Banno took a leave from her job to help with the trial preparations. She took out a $55,000 home equity loan to cover her family's living expenses. In all, she said, she has spent about $30,000 on the case.
"I used to feel pretty free going out to eat and taking a trip to visit my mom in Hawaii," Mrs. Banno said. "All of that has pretty much stopped."
The ordeal has created plenty of tension for Mr. Banno's extended family in Japan. His father, who is Japanese and works in Fukuoka as a yoga teacher, was told by his relatives that his son's arrest had shamed them. Mrs. Banno has not heard from her in-laws since then.
After months of pressing the case for Mr. Banno's innocence, a big break came late last month, when Ms. Shroff and Mr. Fraser tracked down time-sequence photographs taken by a Daily News photographer that showed Mr. Banno was far from where the fire began. A week later, prosecutors stated in court that the officer had misidentified Mr. Banno, and yesterday a spokeswoman said that the case would probably be dropped.
For Mrs. Banno, it was not a moment too soon.
"I want our calm life back," she said. "I can't wait to go home."
The only thing more disgusting that what happened to this American is the fact that many so-called "conservatives" will applaud his abuse by "the system"
Great story! Glad he is enjoying his trip to NYC!
Karma.
Um I'm sorry but the system was never abused.
In any system, there will be mistakes etc...it seems to me that this young man took a risk by taking part in the protests-- and was arrested and charged in good faith by the police and prosecutors.
I feel no sympathy at all for him or his family.
Amerika? With a k.
Bye bye troll.
Yep... cops saw the fire and promptly walked 14 blocks away to start arresting folks for it.
I don't believe a word of this "news" story.
Doesn't matter if the student is a dem or not. This goes for both sides. He endangered others around him playing with fire. I think he got what he deserves.
That's the most un-American thing I've heard in awhile.
and was arrested and charged in good faith by the police and prosecutors.
Oh really? There was a thread posted here the other day about how 90% of these cases were being dropped by the state because of cops lying and fabricating evidence. The only reason this was discoved was because many private citizens were recording events with their own video cameras, and later turned them in to the DA. In one case, the cops had their own tape, but cut out all the exculpatory evidence. They blamed this on an "editing error".
I suspect that next time around, they'll simply ban video recorders as a "security" measure. And the statist contigent here will applaud that also.
I feel no sympathy at all for him or his family.
Anyone who dares to disagree with you obviously deserves to be falsely arrested, right?
Amerika? With a k.
Yep. Welcome to the police state.
I hope the lefties that recruited him are helping to pay his bills.
You need to read the thread that was posted here about how they are having to drop 90% of the charges because of the NKVD, I mean NYPD, lying.
Of course, none of the cops will get charged with anything.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
What a crock of sh*t! They are nothing less than committed communists. Friggin' NYT!
I don't understand your point. Is it a crime to be in New York?
I hope the lefties that recruited him are helping to pay his bills.
The state of New York needs to be paying his bills.
I have to disagree with you. The troll with America with a K revealed an anti-American bias. Plus I agree with you that it does sound as if he was charged in an honest mistake.
But certainly you would feel sorry if say an anti-abortion protestor was misidentified and it cost them a lot of money and it upset their life. I know I would feel sorry for them. And you can't have it both ways. People have the right to protest and speak their mind in this country. Sometimes at a protest, right or left, someone will do something illegal. But similarly if you go to a movie, a ball game, a concert, a play etc someone could do something wrong and you could be misidentified as the bad guy. So of course we should feel bad for this guy IF HE REALLY DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG.
And in fact we should feel doubly bad for him, not only did he wrongly get identified and have his life upset for nine months and cost his family a good bit of money, but he is apparently a clueless Dim who does not have any idea how the world works. Thus as I said, we should feel doubly bad for him.
I hope Mrs. Banno sued the pants off the cop and gets lots of dough from this.
Can you serve a little cheese with your WHINE.
He got what he deserved. Came to New York to cause trouble and got more then he bargained for.
What's with the "scare" quotes? I thought only my old professors did that. Or rather, I "thought" only "my" old "professors" did that. And America is not spelled with a 'k'. Use of the 'Amerika' spelling is offensive--unless, of course, you're referring to the Kafka novel of that title. Which I don't think you were.
No, actually he WASN'T playing with the fire, according to the district attorney. That's why they dropped the charges.
I think he got what he deserves.
Seig Heil.
While I'm not celebrating, I don't see him as a hapless unfortunate either.
He positioned himself in an environment of disorderly conduct that was very mob-like. The police were just doing their jobs. In an uncontrolled environment like that, it's hardly surprising they weren't able to effectively nab the right person.
If he was unwilling to assume the risks associated with that, he should have found a more calm group and protested elsewhere.
It's like hanging out with a gang. The kid may not do anything wrong, but it's hard to sympathize with him if he gets in trouble anyway.
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