It took six days in a D.C. courtroom to find 11 Occupy DC protesters guilty of minor charges stemming from a daylong standoff with police last December.
After hours of testimony, two expert witnesses and considerable attorney time, seven defendants were ordered to pay $50 fines, three will pay $150 and one, who urinated from above as police tried to move in, will pay $300.
Protesters could have avoided the trial all together by paying a $100 fine, but they refused. Drew Veysey spent $110 and 14 hours on a bus just to get to court but said he had no regrets.
“I’d rather give $500 to Megabus than $5 to the Park Service,” said his co-defendant, Caty McClure. “We were just shoveling money into the Park Service, and it started to seem crazy.”
Defense lawyer Jeffrey Light acknowledged the trial consumed government resources but said, “That’s just what happens when defendants assert their constitutional rights.”
And he’s not finished yet.
Light, who worked pro bono for six months, plans to keep appealing until he gets a not-guilty verdict.
“It could last a few more years,” he said. “I don’t get tired of trying these cases.”
Thirty-one protesters were arrested in December after a daylong standoff with police sparked by a 16-foot-tall wooden structure the Occupiers had erected in McPherson Square.
Sixteen protesters refused police orders to move away from the structure, which was declared unsafe. Several even climbed on top of the structure.
Eleven Occupiers were charged with failure to obey an emergency order. Seven who remained in the structure were fined $50, the lowest amount possible. Three protesters who climbed on top of the building were fined $150.
David Givens, who urinated as police moved in to arrest him, was fined $300 and ordered to perform 24 hours of community service.
