Call the Mayor!!!
Write or call the Mayor of Denver and the City Attorney. Urge
Them to Stop the Prosecution of the remaining 230 defendants.
Based on yesterday’s acquittals in the consolidated trail, our
legal team will be actively seeking to get cases dismissed against
the rest of us. But they will need us to help with political
pressure. Please call, write, fax the Mayor and the City Attorney
– urging them to drop the cases. Have your familiy and friends –
if we each asked five people to call today – that would be over
1000 phone calls going to each of their offices.
Why we are asking for dismissal:
The acquittal of the first eight defenders to go to
jury trial combined with earlier dismissal of 12 cases for lack of
probable cause is a clear sign that the continued prosecution of
these cases is a waste of city resources. We now call upon the City
of Denver to dismiss the remaining charges against the other 220
defendants in these cases, and to prosecute elders and children when
it was unable to convict organizers. We call upon the people of Denver to
condemn the abuse of their tax dollars through the prosecution of
these cases, and ask the people of Denver to demand that the mayor
and the city attorney join in the movement to transform that day to
a true holiday that promotes respect for all of Denver's diverse
cultures.
Write, call, fax, or email:
Mayor John W. Hickenlooper
1437 Bannock Street, Ste 350
Denver, CO 80202
Phone 720-865-9000
Fax: 720-865-8791
MileHighMayor@ci.denver.co.us
Mr. Cole Finegan, City Attorney
1437 Bannock Street, Ste. 353
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: 720-865-8600
Fax: 720-865-8796
city.attorney@ci.denver.co.us
Ms. Elbra Wedgeworth
Chair, Denver City Council
3280 Downing St., Unit C
Denver, CO 80205
Phone: (303) 298-7641
Fax: (303) 298-9716
elbra.wedgeworth@ci.denver.co.us
Denver residents should also call their own city council member
and the at-large council member. If you need to find contact
information for your city council member click
here (new window).
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TCD Fundraiser
***The Transform Columbus Day (TCD) fundraiser will be Saturday,
Jan 22, at the Mercury Café, 2199 California St., from 9 PM to 1 AM
Entertainment will feature many of our own talented defenders of
human rights
- Savage Family (all the way from Kansas)
- The TaliBand
- Tony Ciocci
- Ara Cruz – Café Cultura
- Ellen Klaver
- Tetrahedron
- Adrienna Corrales
- And others
Suggested donation at the door is $5, but no one will be turned
away
There will be a raffle of a beautiful Pendleton blanket –
tickets at $10 a piece. [And there will be other raffle items.]
Please bring cookies or other sweets, if you like. And make sure
to let other people know that this is happening.
Contact: Ben Ferguson, 720-283-3974, Wiper12@hotmail.com
Carla Vialpando, 720-936-9773, iktomiska@hotmail.com
***Proceeds from the event will go towards legal expenses for the
239 defenders who are arrested last October 9.
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Jan. 20th & 21st suppression hearings moved
Due to the length of the trial for the first eight
defenders, Judge Burd has moved the suppression hearings scheduled
in her courtroom 151P for this Thursday, Jan 20 and Friday, Jan 21 -
to the actual date of trial for each defender.
Trial resumes Jan. 20th in new courtroom
The trial resumes January 20th at 8:30am, in
courtroom 100K in the 1st floor of the Denver City and County
Building (14th & Bannock). The trial should conclude tomorrow by
noon. The testimony of Natsu Saito and Ward Churchill will be heard,
as well as the closing statements.
A pivotal issue seems to be whether or not
individuals actually heard an order to disperse. The police video
shows Captain Sandoval using a bullhorn to give that order. But it
is clear from many people's testimony - that many people did not
hear that order.
Judge Burd is allowing a drum to be brought into the
court on Jan. 20th, so the jury members can make their own judgment
about whether or not those orders could have been heard.
Day Two of the consolidated
trial, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005
After calling two Denver police officers (Division
Chief Cooper and Commander Sandoval) plus showing video footage from
the protests,
the City of Denver rested its case around 12:00pm, Jan. 19th. The
defense presented five witnesses who delivered a very strong and
compelling testimony, both about their personal reasons for being
involved in protesting the celebration of genocide and also about
the socially transformative work of the TCD Alliance.
Glenn Morris was the first
witness for the defenders in the afternoon. He was certified as a constitutional law
expert by the court and testified as to the doctrine of discovery, its
historical and contemporary significance to the indigenous people of the
Americas, the relation of the doctrine of discovery to the celebration
of Columbus. He also testified to the pattern of ethnic intimidation
targeted towards indigenous people in Denver around Columbus Day and how
the explicit celebration of colonialism is a violation of Colorado, US
and international laws and the equal protection clause in the US
Constitution.
Nita Gonzales testified about Escuela Tlatelolco, about Aztec
culture and how it has been denied in the public schools, about the
Crusade for Justice, about the indigenous and Chicano alliances,
about the Transform Columbus Day Alliance and how the Four
Directions March honors all people. How the holiday denies the
cultural heritage of her children.
Rev. Reginald Holmes testified how Columbus represented genocide
in the Americas and the enslavement of indigenous and African
peoples.
Glenn Spagnuolo testified about his Italian heritage (his parents
are from Italy) and how he learned about the history of indigenous
peoples in this continent. He talked about a sense of shame when he
found out that some Italians in Denver were celebrating Columbus and
how he worked to approach the pro-Columbus Italians and was
rebuffed.
Troylynn YellowWood spoke about her involvement in the Four
Directions March and the energy and power of having all nations of
people, she represents five generations of her family. everyone
knows about Columbus and the people who came with me but no one
knows about the people he destroyed.
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First consolidated trial begun Tuesday, Jan. 18,
2005
A consolidated trial
with Ward Churchill, Nita Gonzales, Rev. Holmes, Leroy Lemos, Glenn Morris, Natsu Saito, Glenn
Spagnuolo, and Troylynn Yellowwood as the defenders started today, Tuesday, January 18, 2005, in
Judge Burd's court (151P). The trial is being held in District
Courtroom 13, in the 4th floor of the Denver City and County
Building (14th & Bannock). The trial is expected to last
at least through Thursday. As of 3:20pm, Jan. 18, the jury of six
plus two alternates had been
selected and seated and both the prosecution and the defense had
delivered their opening statements. A summary of the day will be
posted shortly.
Suppression Hearings and Trials
Hearings on the motion to suppress evidence are
being held and trial dates are being set. If you are a defender and
you have not received notice of your hearing and trial date please
contact the legal
team right away. If you have received notice of your trial date,
it is important that you confirm receipt in writing to the legal
team.
Rulings on the motions
Judge Ortiz-White has ruled on
the constitutional law motion and has found the loitering ordinance
unconstitutional as it has been applied to the defenders. All
loitering charges have been dismissed in her court. The failure to
obey charges remain. She has not yet ruled on the other motions.
Judge Bowers ruled during the
hearing on the hate speech motion and she denied it. She has not
ruled on the other motions.
Judge Burd ruled that the City
has failed to establish probable cause on the loitering charges and
has dismissed all loitering charges in her court. The failure to
obey charges remain. She did not rule on the constitutionality of
the loitering ordinance per se. She denied motions to dismiss on the
other motions.
Resources
It is imperative that defenders prepare for trial by
getting their statements ready and reviewing the three motions and
other resources that are listed on the left of this page. Many of the links will open in
separate windows.
Arraignments
Arraignments for all defendants have been completed and all the
deadlines for jury fees have passed. If you need to recheck what
court you are in you can click here.
See also media
coverage of the arraignments (will open in a new window).
The next major step in the legal process for TCD
defendants has been the motions hearing before the three judges that
was held Thursday January 6, 9 am, City Council
Chambers, 4th Floor, Denver City and County Building, 14th
& Bannock. We will post the text of the rulings on those
motions and any additional info here. You can also see coverage of
the hearing by the Denver
Post and the Rocky
Mountain News.
A simplified explanation of each motion can be
found below. The full motions are available by clicking on the title
of each one. All motions are in Adobe Acrobat format (you will need
the free Acrobat
Reader) and will open in a new window when clicked. The
motions posted here may make reference to a specific courtroom or
list only some of the defendants, but identical motions have been filed
in all courtrooms for all defendants.
All three judges heard the motions at the same
time, but will make independent decisions concerning which motions
to allow. A motion is basically a request to the court, in this case
before any trial begins, by an attorney that the court takes some
specific action regarding the case. Our attorneys have presented
three motions to the court, all of them asking that charges against
the defendants are dismissed:
