U.S. District Court Judge Susan Gauvey dismissed all charges against 13 peace activists cited for protesting outside the National Security Agency in Fort Meade this summer.
Gauvey said an NSA security officer erred by charging the protesters in a situation where the officer lacked the legal authority to do so. The officer also failed to provide a statement of probable cause for the charges, the judge said.
“The facts have to be part of the charging document,” she said Thursday.
The dismissed trespassing charges stemmed from a July 8 protest inside National Vigilance Park in Anne Arundel County, where an NSA security officer charged the activists with entering a military facility for illegal purposes, though the group was stopped on, what the protesters maintain, was a public road.
About 25 protesters, including Green Party gubernatorial candidate Ed Boyd and State Senate candidate Maria Allwine, attended the rally, but only 13 were cited while carrying signs, which included a banner that read “NSA = Crime Science.”
The charge was baseless because the law only disallows illegally entry into NSA property, not remaining there, the judge said, adding that the protesters were never alerted that the NSA objected to their presence upon entry to the public park.
“There was no guard. There was no checkpoint. There was no sign warning them of anything,” Gauvey said.
Max Obuszewski, a member of the anti-war group Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, said he was pleased the judge dismissed the charges against him and the other protesters.
But Obuszewski said he was looking forward to using the legal process of discovery to gain more information about the largest secret organization in the country, which he believes is spying on his group.
“We want them to stop,” he told the judge. “… They got us into the war in Iraq.”
Gauvey told the protesters she couldn?t “be a bridge” between them and the agency, but wanted to see the NSA work with the protesters to establish a place where they could demonstrate without interference.
“There needs to be some agreement with the NSA where you can protest and exercise your First Amendment rights consistent with the obligations of security and safety,” she said.
