Protesters’ battle in court only beginning
Inauguration Day violence brought serious charges, and trials start this month
On Inauguration Day in Washington, anarchists and activists tore through the streets for 16 blocks, tossing bricks at police officers, setting trash cans and a limousine on fire and smashing windows, all in opposition to the new commander in chief.
Six officers had to be hospitalized and more than $100,000 in damage was done, resulting in 234 people arrested or charged with a crime — among them an oncologist nurse, a UPS driver and a full-time nanny.
But 10 months later, the arrests are no longer side notes. A federal grand jury indicted more than 200 people with multiple felonies each. Nearly 200 still face six felony charges — inciting a riot plus five counts of destruction of property — together carrying decades in prison. The protesters orig- inally also faced felony charges of engaging in and conspiracy to riot, but those charges were dropped to misdemeanors on Wednesday. The first trials are scheduled to begin this month.
The indictment alleges all the defendants played a part in encouraging
and conspiring to form a riot. Collectively, they’re accused of damaging two Starbucks, a Bank of America, a D.C. sandwich shop and a McDonald’s.
Among those facing charges is Kyle Wright, who on the chilly inauguration day stood toe-to-toe with a police officer in downtown Washington as scores of protesters were being arrested.
He was hurt, injured sometime during the fracas in the shadow of office buildings, amid the flurry of pepper spray and fire. The 22-year-old from Chantilly, Va., despises capitalism and views government as an oppressive hierarchy. So, when the officer warned Wright not to step forward — he did.
He received a fine and community service. Months later, he was indicted and has since decided not to cooperate with investigators.
“I’m the kind of person that doesn’t back down from a fight, and this is the state directly challenging me to a fight,” said Wright, who wouldn’t discuss certain aspects of the day for fear of interfering in his case. “Obviously, I don’t want to go to prison, but I’m where I need to be.”
Of the 234 people arrested or charged in the protests, 20 have had their cases dismissed and another 20 have pleaded to lesser charges, often misdemeanor rioting carrying a fine and community service. That leaves 194 people, including Wright, who’ve decided to challenge the charges by agreeing to a trial, the first of which start with jury selection Nov. 15.
The U.S. attorney’s office for D.C., which is prosecuting the protesters, chose not to comment on the specifics of the pending cases.
“The prosecutors don’t really want to put all these people in jail because they don’t have the time or the resources to do so,” said Michael Heaney, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies social movement and protests. “The real penalty there is going through the legal process.”
‘You get angry’
Weeks before her arrest, Elizabeth Lagesse decided she’d put her pursuit of a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Johns Hopkins University aside.
“All of this has just been incredibly infuriating and disempowering and frustrating,” said Lagesse, 30. “You get scared for a second, but then the ridiculousness of why you’re scared is so overwhelming that you get angry.”
She went to protest the new president and arrived a half-hour late, beginning her march with a bandanna and safety goggles to protect her from pepper spray. In her charging document, it states she “willfully engaged, incited and urged other people to engage in a public disturbance.”
The ACLU of D.C. is suing 170 members of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), its chief and the city on Lagesse’s behalf and three others. Among the many claims is that police grouped protesters in a “kettle” as the inauguration began, arresting them without differentiating between those committing crimes and those who didn’t. The kettle, as the ACLU described it, involved the police blocking off streets so they could cordon the protesters in one area.
The prosecution “has asserted theories of guilt so broad that they could effectively sweep in anyone on the street that day who either was wearing certain clothes or had certain views,” said Scott Michelman, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of D.C.
Prosecutors say the defendants aligned in a “Black Bloc,” a tactic in which protesters dress in black and cover their faces so they can’t be identified by police.
Sending a message
Except in a few instances, the indictment attributes violence broadly, often blaming specific acts of destruction on the group at large.
When Zachary Callahan, 38, the UPS driver, and his wife, Sara, 30, pleaded to lesser misdemeanor rioting charges earlier this year, prosecutors didn’t mention certain types of violence either had individually committed. They did, however, provide evidence each had knowledge of the riots before they happened.
“I don’t think this is a very common situation,” said Heaney, who was at the protests doing research. He said the charges are more severe than is typical, but not as harsh as they could have been. Protesters often are charged with misdemeanors, things like failure to disperse or blocking traffic. But it’s possible the protesters could have faced federal or even terrorism charges.
At the time of the arrests, MPD Chief Peter Newsham attributed the protests to a core group that numbered up to 500 people. The MPD chose not to answer USA TODAY’s specific questions about the protests, citing the pending litigation, but did offer a statement. Spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said all instances of use of force were being investigated.
“There were thousands of individuals who exercised their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and speak out for their cause,” Sternbeck said in an email. “Unfortunately, there was another group of individuals who chose to engage in criminal acts, destroying property and hurling projectiles, injuring at least six officers.”
‘A huge risk for a day of protesting’
Some of the fierce government critics who stormed the streets have found themselves apologizing, begging for leniency and hesitant to demonstrate in the future.
Among the more violent protesters was Dane Powell, 32, an army veteran and father of three from Largo, Fla. He’s the first and only protester so far to receive prison time for his actions on Inauguration Day. He pleaded guilty to felony rioting and assault on a police officer. At his sentencing in July, where he received a four-month prison term, he appeared apologetic, far different than his enthusiasm on Jan. 20.
Dressed head to toe in black, Powell broke windows near the Starbucks and Bank of America with a black flag, shattered the window of the McDonald’s with a hammer and hurled bricks and chunks of concrete at police officers.
In Florida, where he lives, convicted felons lose their right to vote.
“I am standing before you today as the first from this political case with a felony conviction that will forever impact my life and the lives of my children,” Powell said at his sentencing hearing. “I would also like to apologize to anyone that was hurt, scared, felt threatened by or affected by me in any other way that day.”
Despite the charges and video evidence of the destruction, Lagesse and Wright take offense to using the word “violent” to describe the protests. Wright insists it was the only way to be heard.
“You won’t hear about something unless there’s some sort of destruction,” he said. “You wouldn’t have heard about Ferguson. … They didn’t cover the peaceful protest until it turned violent.”
Lagesse said she has sat out protests since, saying the arrest and prosecution serves as a psychological barrier. The legal process, she said, is “a huge risk for a day of protesting.”