Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

June 14, 2012

Original Post

 At a January hearing in 2011, Ed Frey checks in with
expert witness, Dr. Paul Lee, as supporters Robert Norse
and Gail Page look on. Photo by Becky Johnson

by Becky Johnson
June 14, 2012

Santa Cruz, Ca. — While my title may seem absurd, it is clear that the answer is “yes.”  Both Gary Johnson, a homeless man, and his attorney, Ed Frey, slept outside the courthouse as part of Peace Camp 2010, to protest laws which criminalize the act of sleeping.  When County Counsel Dana McRae advised Sheriff’s that they could cite protestors with 647 (e), the statewide anti-lodging law, sheriff’s began to advise protestors that “illegal lodging would not be tolerated.”

The misdemeanor law can involve immediate arrest for the act of “lodging,” even though the legal meaning of that term is not defined within the law.

Because of this over-charging ( an infraction sleeping ban ticket would only have resulted in a maximum of 8 hours of community service, if found guilty) the very first ever jury trial on a sleeping ban was held before Judge John Gallagher last May.  Frey and Johnson were found guilty of sleeping.

To show his extreme displeasure with the whole process, Gallagher sentenced both Johnson and Frey to 6 months in jail for the “crime” of lodging, which court testimony said was sleeping. When Frey asked to be released on bail to appeal his conviction, Gallagher set bail at $50,000 each.  Both were handcuffed and jailed right as the hearing ended.

At a later hearing, Gallagher modified the bail to $110, which was, apparently, the bail schedule all along for 647 (e) violations.  Today, in Dept 5, a three-judge panel will hear Frey’s appeal.  If the conviction is upheld, Frey and Johnson may be remanded to jail to finish serving their six-month sentences.

Does Santa Cruz REALLY put people in jail for sleeping?  You bet they do.

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

June 12, 2012

Original Post

 In a world gone Topsy-turvy, a 19 year old activist who served as a media representative is charged with serious felonies and misdemeanors while a greedy corporate bank which has carelessly left a valuable physical asset boarded up and unused for several years, most likely as a tax write-off, is the “victim” and is prosecuting protesters and whistle blowers while seeking $30,000 in “damages.”

Santa Cruz, Ca. — The youngest of the Santa Cruz Eleven, Desiree Foster was arrested as she and her boyfriend were leaving her home on her way to the Santa Cruz County courthouse in an attempt to  quash her arrest warrant by agreeing to appear in court on a date certain. Instead, she spent the next nine hours sitting on plastic seating watching a deputy-controlled television set, having been arrested for two counts of felony conspiracy to trespass and vandalize, and two misdemeanor counts of trespass and vandalism with bail set at $5,000. Her mother, suffering from cancer attempted to raise the $500 to bail out her daughter, when, inexplicably, Desiree was released on her own recognizance.

But the pressure of the felony charges, the financial instability of her family, and the fear and dread that she faced in dealing with her mother’s cancer, proved to be too much. Desiree took an overdose of pills and wound up in Dominican Hospital, treated for a suicide attempt.

Desiree, a passionate and idealistic young woman, had found her voice attending Occupy Santa Cruz general assemblies, and volunteered for many tasks. At home, she and her mother struggled to pay bills.  Desiree is her mother’s primary caregiver, as she undergoes chemotherapy.   Desiree, like many in her generation, knew that something is inherently wrong with our system if she and her mother had to struggle to keep a roof over their heads while her mom was being treated for cancer.  She lived in a world where with or without a college education, young people could not find good jobs.

Without stable and affordable housing, reasonable wages for jobs, and quality health care for all who need it, too many of the 99% who have followed all the rules, worked hard, paid their taxes, are falling through the cracks. Too many still lack health care, are paid inadequate wages, and must pay housing costs that are through the roof.  Wells Fargo is a key player in the housing foreclosure crisis.

On November 30th, 2011, a group of activists and community members entered a long-vacant bank building leased to Wells Fargo, and attempted to turn it into a community center.   During the occupation of that building by 100 to 300 different people, Desiree volunteered for the task of media representative for the ad hoc occupiers.

“I spoke to the Sentinel, KION, Phil Gomez of KSBW, the Mid-County Post and the Santa Cruz Patch,” Desiree told me by phone.  “I spoke to everyone. I told them that we wanted it to be something better than what it is now, just a vacant spot.” She was interviewed on Community Television as well.

While Police Chief Kevin Vogel and DA Bob Lee have characterized Desiree and the Santa Cruz Eleven as “vandals” and “trespassers” who are disrespectful of private property, the truth is something quite different. For the persons who whole-heartedly embraced the temporary and largely symbolic takeover of 75 River Street, which Wells Fargo had all but abandoned, they meant to use it as a focal point to educate the general public about what that building COULD have been used for instead.

SCPD photo of signs left behind at 75 River Street
naming what that building could have been used for.

Most of the occupiers believe that our democratic system has been hijacked by the wealthy. The wealthiest 1% (Wells Fargo) is profiting at the expense of the rest of the 99%.  For business as usual to continue, it means that you and me, the citizenry in Santa Cruz must live and work around Wells Fargo’s ‘dead spot’ –an empty building sitting for four years now, without a single tenant, providing no jobs, no services, and very little tax revenue to the community, but undoubtedly providing a HUGE tax write-off for the ultra-wealthy bankers of Wells Fargo. While public funds are used to evict Wells Fargo’s “trespassers,”  more public funds are used by a DA to conduct a witch hunt against a largely arbitrary list of “felons.”

Truly those courageous and bold activists who gained entry to the dusty and unused interior without damaging the building in any way, did so for a purpose bigger than their own lives. They took considerable personal risk for doing so, and were unlikely to benefit financially from the takeover. Finally, they performed the occupation by using a consensus process, where they formally agreed to refrain from vandalism.

Indeed, police have thus far failed to provide any photographic evidence of this ‘vandalism’ in the hundreds of photos turned over to the defense as part of discovery. Other than some graffiti and an anarchist sticker on the ROOF air conditioning ducts, no other damage has been documented. Yet prosecutors Lee and Assistant DA Rebekah Young used a figure of ” approximately $30,000″ in damage in their indictments in statements written “under penalty of perjury.”  Yet, even in court, Det. Gunter testified that the last time he checked “That number had been lowered to about $22,000.”

SCPD photo of an anarchist sticker on the roof
access hatch at 75 River Street.

The trespassing claim may be questionable as well. For a person to be found guilty of trespassing, they must first be warned, and, upon that warning, fail to leave the premises. None of the eleven defendants fit that description. Police Officer William Winston testified that the first and only verbal warning was given by Sgt. Harms “between 7:30PM and 8PM” and “after dark.” No signage is known to have been posted until the next day at the earliest.

None of the indictment documents include any evidence that Desiree was warned, and after that warning, failed to leave. Now this may be a technicality, the ability and authority for police to remove unauthorized people from private property involves a series of steps to be taken in a certain order. On the night of November 30th, Desiree met with various members of the press and facilitated answering their questions and providing them with interviews, statements, and at points, access.

During the 72-hour occupation, no protester or police officer was injured. Communication was facilitated between three of the protesters and police, public officials, and media. After 72 hours, the group decided to leave peacefully and even spent a few hours cleaning up before going. Their message had been communicated through the media to the public. In the end, the action spoke for itself.  Wells Fargo had been exposed as the thoughtless, land-hoarder that it is.  The public had been made aware of the building’s occupation and the reasons for it.  And no one was hurt.  No confrontation with police occurred. No tasers. No percussion grenades. No tear gas. No batons swinging. Very little vandalism.  And there were no arrests.

So who is the criminal and who is the law-abiding good citizen? The greedy corporation that will use any property under its control to bilk more money for itself; dollars that should rightly have been paid to the government in taxes? Or a 19-year old girl who participated in a largely symbolic occupation to protest against that greed, that misuse of a valuable asset, and to fight against the fundamental inequities in economic justice system rigged by bought Congressmen and Judges to benefit the richest 1%?

Of course, if Desiree and the Santa Cruz Eleven ARE convicted and sent to prison, this is good news for Wells Fargo as well. For Wells Fargo is the biggest investor in the for-profit prison industry.

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

June 2, 2012

Original Post

 Endless hearings ordered to appear before Judges where nothing of substance

happens is part of the problem, and part of the abuse

by Becky Johnson
June 2, 2012

Santa Cruz, Ca. — In what has become a long series of dreary court hearings where almost nothing happens, Judge Sillman did not fail to disappoint. Friday, the June 1st hearing was ostensibly to install defendant, Brent Adams’ public defender, to consider whether DA Rebekah Young had finally turned over sufficient discovery, and to set a new, NEW date for a preliminary hearing (This will be my THIRD date for a preliminary hearing).  In all of these hearings, should any defendant not appear in the proper court at the proper time, a warrant is issued for their arrest.

I call it punishment prior to conviction.  DA Bob Lee and his henchwoman, Rebekah Young have been hanging up the lives of 11 citizen activists, overcharging them with duel felonies and misdemeanors, and smeared them as “vandals” and “trespassers” who “don’t respect private property.” His attack on alternative media journalists is naked and self-serving. How can one journalist covering the event be ignored and another charged with felonies for the same actions? But this is the essence of the charges against nearly half of the defendants. One hundred to three-hundred people went into the building in 3 days time, but only these 11 have been charged.

In court on Friday, June 1st, Sillman curtly announced that the attorney he had appointed for Brent Adams the previous week “was not available” and that he was in the process of locating whether Attorney Charlie Stevens was in the building and could be appointed. Adams, who has been appearing pro per since his former PD, Ryan Murphy, discharged himself a week ago, told Sillman ” I’ve already spoken with a Public Defender and he’s agreed to represent me.”

“Who is that?” Sillman asked.

“Jonathan Gettleman,” Brent replied.
“We are not in the process of reaching that particular name,” Sillman replied and ordered all defendants back in court ANOTHER week later at 8:15AM rather than appoint Gettleman on the spot. That means all 5 defendants, their 5 attorneys, press, and supporters must yet again rearrange their schedules, find transportation, parking, and appear under threat of arrest AGAIN because Sillman refused to appoint a PD that the defendant wanted and would be satisfied with.

For me, it’s deja vu all over again.  Judge Ariadne Symons took five hearings to appoint me a public defender, when she could have appointed the attorney I wanted on day one. She accused me of having “other income” and challenged  that since I own a 15 year old car that I had recently purchased for $1,500,  as “proof” that I was income-eligible for the services of a public defender.

We all saw the results of failing to appear at one of Sillman’s hearings. When DA Rebekah Young refiled charges on two defendants whose charges had previously been dismissed by Judge Paul Burdick, she ordered defendants Cameron Larendau and Franklin “Angel” Alcantara to be present in court at 8:30AM. When neither defendant nor either of their attorneys appeared, Sillman ordered a warrant issued for each of them. But supporters murmured that it was highly unlikely that all four people had blown off the hearing. A far more likely scenario was that DA Rebekah Young had made yet another misstep and failed to notify anyone properly.

This judicial merry-go round is getting me queasy.  The next surreal act is scheduled for June 8th at 8:15AM in Dept. 6.  Meanwhile, “victim” Wells Fargo Bank has not rented 75 River Street yet, and with an asking rental of $35, 231.34 per month, it’s going to be a cold day in hell before anyone rents that building. And if the 11 (now 7) defendants wind up in prison with felony convictions, well, Wells Fargo wins. You see, Wells Fargo is the biggest investor in the for-profit prison industry in the United States. Not only do they tell the police and DA to do their bidding at public expense, but they profit from anyone jailed, whether justly or not.

They are a bank. It is all about numbers for them. They charge 11 people with “trespass” and “vandalism” and attempt to extort a phony “$31,000” in damages from the defendants. Later, while under oath, Det. Gunter of the SCPD testified that when he checked “The damages were not as severe as we first thought.”  Now the damages are “$21,000”. The only “proof” of any damages were police photos of graffiti on the air conditioning ducts on the ROOF of the building! It is doubtful it cost $21,000 in spray paint to restore the ducts to their original…beauty.

I suspect the ACTUAL damage to the building to be in the hundreds, NOT thousands of dollars range. Perhaps DA Bob Lee should investigate Wells Fargo for putting up such outrageous claims of damages that it amounts to fraud.

I’ve been thinking about Rosa Parks lately.  I compared Rosa Parks to the people who occupied 75 River Street– a vacant bank building–and tried to turn it into a community center.  It was a noble idea. To turn a blighted building, hoarded by a greedy and heartless bank purely for tax benefits, into a vibrant building serving the public good. I’d long eyed that building as a perfect homeless shelter, since it sat empty year after year employing no one, sheltering no one,  and taking up useful space uselessly.  In 2010, while 75 River Street sat empty, four homeless people died of exposure out of doors in Santa Cruz.

Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of that bus, and she was arrested.  She broke the law intentionally, but did so for the greater good. The people who occupied 75 River Street were like Rosa Parks. They intentionally broke the law, but did so for the greater good.  Now let me make one thing clear:  I am no Rosa Parks. In this scenario, I would have been the person who stayed at the bus stop and never got on that bus in the first place. I’d be like the person who SAW Rosa Parks’ brave act and cheered her on from the sidelines.  You see, I never went into the building. I’m a big chicken.

Yet the toll for the defendants is piling up. “Angel” Alcantara was able to make it to court that day and quash the warrant. But Cameron Larendau could not. He lives in Oakland, CA., doesn’t own a car, and it takes him 3 and a half hours by public transportation to come to each court appearance. Desiree Foster, the youngest defendant at 19 years of age, is taking care of her mother who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. When Desiree was arrested, her mom bailed her out of jail, but they really couldn’t afford the $500. Shortly after that, Desiree attempted suicide and was hospitalized. In my own case, I was handcuffed at my home, carted to jail, and spent the night locked up in “G” Dorm.

The costs to our 1st amendment rights are harder to calculate. Who has been too chilled to join a march since the prosecutions were announced? Who no longer wants to associate with the 11 activists charged lest they be next, or with anyone involved in Occupy Santa Cruz?  And what photographer, journalist or blogger isn’t chilled when the CONTENT of their reporting is being charged as “aiding” and “abetting” criminal activity? Yet “the people” as represented by DA Bob Lee march forward, entirely at public expense, and push forward Bob’s dirty little dog and pony show, where our rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, our rights to peaceably assemble, and our rights to seek redress of government grievances are severely challenged and truncated just to promote the interests of Wells Fargo and the status quo.  Where is State Attorney General Kamela Harris on this? Does SHE approve of what DA Bob Lee is doing?

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

May 27, 2012

Original Post

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

August 5, 2012

Original Post

Attorney Ed Frey retrieves the Peace Flag from deputies and returns it to Peace Camp 2010 while protester, Vamp, stands by July 13, 2010.   Photo by Becky Johnson

by Becky Johnson

August 5 2012

Santa Cruz, Ca. — Respected local Civil Rights Attorney Ed Frey, has been ordered to report to the Santa Cruz County Jail on Wednesday morning of August 8th at 9AM. He is scheduled to begin serving the remainder of his six month sentence for “lodging” which is a highly-suspect section of the statewide disorderly conduct code. For instance, “lodging” is not defined anywhere in the code section, so law enforcement (and local DA’s and Judges) can interpret what constitutes illegal “lodging” anyway they wish. And since it is a misdemeanor, a violation can result in immediate arrest. Activists consider it an end-run around loitering laws which have largely been declared unconstitutional.

Testimony by several sheriff’s deputies at Ed Frey’s trial cited observing defendants “sleeping” with no other index of criminal activity reported. During the 92 day protest, not a single littering ticket was issued. Ed Frey provided a porto-potty every night as he and hundreds of housed and homeless people alike slept in civil disobedience of laws which criminalize sleeping.

This model of protest was copied and expanded with Occupy Santa Cruz a year later. Ed Frey served on the legal support working group and defended the encampment in court.  In each of these cases, Ed worked tirelessly, providing a powerful voice, setting a moral and ethical framework for dealing with the influx of homeless people who joined the encampment primarily to meet their own physical needs. He even took a pregnant, homeless woman to his home for several nights.

Judge John Gallagher sentenced Frey in a fit of anger he later grew to regret.  The law Ed Frey was primarily focused on opposing was MC 6.36.010 section a, a.k.a. “the Sleeping Ban” for which the maximum fine would have been 8 hours of community service. DA Sara Dabkowski sought 400 hours of community service, which constitutes a 50 fold increase in sentencing. When Ed Frey refused to serve 400 hours of community service, Gallagher angrily sentenced him to the maximum sentence he could issue: 6 months in jail for a 1st offense.

Frey asked to be released on bail pending appeal, only to have Gallagher set bail at $50,000!
Frey served 14 days in jail before being set free at a hearing before a much calmer Judge Gallagher who set bail at $110 which was, apparently, the bail amount for that charge normally.

Frey’s only real chance at appeal took place before appeals court panel, Judge Paul Marigonda and Judge Timothy Volkmann. Marigonda claimed the 6 month sentence was not excessive since he, as a prosecutor, had commonly sent defendants to jail for the maximum sentence when THEY refused community service.  Of course his defendants were involved in domestic violence cases, while Ed Frey was engaged in 1st amendment activities which victimized no one.

The bottom line is it is a CRAZY use of police, court, and jail resources to arrest people for SLEEPING. Be it protestors at a protest or homeless people who can’t afford a roof over their heads. It is wrong. Mean. Cruel. Counter-productive. Selective. It is a human rights abuse done under color of law. And NO ONE who is convicted for sleeping will ever refrain from future sleeping. Sleeping is not a voluntary act.  Every living thing must sleep in order to live. Enforcing a sleeping ban is torturous and causes sickness, mental illness, depression, fatigue, poor immune function and yes, death.  The sleeping ban causes death.

Under these circumstances HOW CAN THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT?

How can DA Bob Lee, County CAO Susan Mauriello, County Counsel Dana McRae, Sheriff Phil Wowack and Judges Gallagher, Connolly, Marigonda, and Commissioner Baskett sleep at night knowing they are the chief conspirators to foment this policy of persecution and judgement.

Attorney Ed Frey made a mockery of our local justice system so that Gallagher had to make up language to feed to his hand-picked jurors in order to get a conviction.  Gallagher even used language cribbed from the 1851 Indiana State Constitution which stated  “No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this Constitution,” when he defined “lodging” as “settling in or living in a place which may include sleeping” as HIS definition of what constituted illegal behavior statewide.

Please attend a protest beginning August 7th at 6PM to oppose the Jailing of Ed Frey. Assert our rights to seek redress of government grievances, our right to peaceably assemble, and our right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment or excessive fines.

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

April 25, 2012

Original Post

  SCPD police evidence photo of Councilmember Katherine Beiers leaving the scene of the crime at 75 River Street at 3:31PM on December 1st

NOTE TO READER: This excellent article by Brad Kava of the Santa Cruz Patch contains many details of Monday’s April 23rd preliminary hearing for four of the Santa Cruz Eleven. However, Gunter did not testify to damage Kava describes as “tearing up pipes, damaging electrical fixtures, writing on walls,” nor have any of the over 600 photos provided to defense attorneys shown this. Gunter on March 13th described “graffiti inside the elevator” but no photo of that damage has been turned over to the defense. The ONLY  graffiti shown in police photos was on the air conditioning ducts on the ROOF. Gunter also testified that the property manager told him over the telephone that the work had been completed “by 5 contractors” but that he did not have copies of those work orders and had not followed up by contacting any of the contractors directly. None of the bills for damages have been turned over to the defense as of April 25th, almost 3 months after charges were first filed and almost 5 months after the building was “vandalized.”   In the meantime, one defendant has attempted suicide, two defendants have been denied the ability to renew their teaching credentials, several defendants have spent thousands of dollars on bail money and private attorneys. One defendant may have lost her housing due to these charges. Another defendant must travel by public transportation for 3 and a half hours each way to attend each hearing. All citizens must worry about walking in a march or attending a meeting, fearing that they too will be arrested for felony “aiding and abetting” should another person at the meeting or march actually commit a crime.

                                                   — Becky Johnson, Ed.   (full disclosure: I am a defendant in this case)

  “Squat the World” graffiti at 75 River Street SCPD evidence photo, Dec 5, 2011

Judge Says the Prosecution “Might Have Some Problems” With Case Against Bank Takeover Defendants

   

In a surprising development, a Santa Cruz County judge told a courtroom Monday that the state’s case against four protesters accused of trespassing and vandalism last November at the vacant Coast Commerce Bank appeared to be lacking sufficient evidence to go to trial.

“I have to say that at first blush ‘The People’ might have some problems with these four defendants,” Judge Paul P. Burdick said at the end of the first day of preliminary hearing. The four defendants – Franklin Alacantara,  Edward Rector, Grant Wilson and Cameron Laurendau – have been charged with felony conspiracy to commit vandalism, for being part of a takeover of the vacant bank at 75 River St. Nov. 30, which left the building with $22,000 of damage.

If convicted they could be sentenced to three years in prison and a fine that would cover the damages, according to prosecutor Rebekah Young. The prosecutor has claimed that by trespassing in the bank building, the suspects are guilty of the vandalism that resulted. She has filed a conspiracy charge that she says ties the trespass to the vandalism.

Four public defenders arguing against her said that because this is a first amendment protest, a higher standard of proof is needed, such as direct evidence of a crime.

More than 100 people were in and out of the bank building during the protest, according to testimony Monday. However, District Attorney Bob Lee and Santa Cruz Police only came up with enough evidence to charge 11 people. The DA’s office even posted pictures and videos on YouTube and Facebook asking the public to help identify suspects.

Evidence presented Monday seemed shaky during testimony by two Santa Cruz Police officers.
Officer William Winston said he saw two of the suspects going in and out of the bank building, but didn’t witness them doing any vandalism, nor could he say how long they stayed in the building. Detective David Gunter saw none of the suspects at the bank, but as the officer put in charge of the investigation, he recognized them from videos and pictures taken by other officers.

However, he too could provide no evidence that they stayed in the building after being told to leave, one of the requirements for trespass. Nor could he provide evidence that they had met and organized the takeover, which would document the conspiracy charge.

“They are trying to scoop up too many people into a net,” said defense attorney Jamyrson Pattori, after the judge asked the prosecutor to present more legal arguments via email before oral arguments continue Wednesday at 10 a.m.. “Some people were just looky-loos and some kids were just attracted to the music. They are just trying to incorporate everybody.”

Judge Burdick asked Young, the prosecutor, to supply him with an email listing cases setting precedents for her arguments to be received by him and the defense attorneys by noon Tuesday. Then, the preliminary hearing would continue Wednesday.

A preliminary hearing is the chance for the judge to decide if there is enough evidence to hold a trial. Two of the 11, Alex Darocy and Bradley Stuart Allen, will be tried May 29. The others are still pending preliminary hearings.

Some other suprising things emerged in the hearing.
*The prosecutor asked to use photographs taken inside the bank by the defendants because, she said, they were better than the ones submitted by police.

Her request was denied because the photos were used in the hearing of Darocy and Allen, and hadn’t been given to defense attorneys as part of discovery in this case.

*Police had three grenadiers standing by on November 30 prepared to launch chemical weapon grenades into the bank, if needed. Detective Gunter was one of them, but he said he was sent away after a short time appraising the takeover.

*The estimated cost of the damages dropped from $30,000 to &20,000-$22,000, after police asked the banks lessee, Wells Fargo, to provide itemized accounting of the repairs needed to fix the damage done by vandals who tore up pipes, damaged electrical fixtures, wrote on walls and piled up furniture to block doors.

*District Attorney Bob Lee assigned one of his newest prosecutors to the case. Rebekah Young, a former TV journalist, only started working for the office in December and this is her first big local case. She had no investigators or backup attorneys at her table, something unusual for such a high-profile case.

*It took the District Attorney three months to file the 11 charges in the case. They were filed February 9. The takeover started November 30 and lasted a couple of days.

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

April 25, 2012

Original Post

Ligue Internationale de Femmes pour la Paix et la Liberté
Liga Internacional de Mujeres por la Paz y la Libertad
Internationale Frauenliga für Frieden und Freiheit

Santa Cruz Branch

P.O. Box 61 Santa Cruz, CA 95063           E-mail: wilpf@wilpf.got.net                Website: http://wilpf.got.net

Statement of Support
April 20, 2012

The Santa Cruz Branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)  condemns the action of local law enforcement in attempting to prosecute eleven local activists who are alleged to have occupied the long-deserted bank building at Water and River Streets last fall.

Four of the defendants are journalists, who were present to report to the community on the protests.  The First Amendment is clear on the rights of journalists to observe and print their findings; the charges against them should be dropped immediately.

It is also apparent that some of the defendants have been targeted for arrest (out of the hundreds who went in and out of the building over the several days of the occupation) because of previous brushes with law enforcement officials. The Constitution forbids charging people with crimes on the basis of their identity or past actions.

Santa Cruz Occupy, a grass-roots movement to attempt to change our extremely unfair economy and end the corporatocracy that now has de facto control of our country, has injured no one, and like all citizens, has a right to be treated with fairness and respect.

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
P.O. Box 61,
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

April 24, 2012

Original Post

 SCPD police photo Dec 1, 2011 at 75 River Street

 NOTE TO READER:  Judge Paul Burdick refused to allow Assistant DA Rebekah Young to use photos which were never provided to the defense. Despite over 600 photos being turned over to defense attorneys, none of the photos Young intended to use in court on Monday were among them. Defense attorneys also sought video footage shot from the police car of Officer William Winston and Officer Forbus, mentioned at the Preliminary hearing on March 13th for Alex Darocy and Bradley Allen, but yet to be produced. Also, footage of defendant, Cameron Laurendau was referred to by Det. Guntner on the stand, but had not been turned over to Cameron’s attorney despite being 4 and half months AFTER the crime and over two months since the indictments were handed down. Interestingly, Guntner testified that on Dec 2nd when he accompanied Officer Hedley in posting “no trespassing”notices, that none of the officers spoke to the defendants.  Yet, in the video posted by DA Bob Lee online on youtube, you can clearly SEE a police officer discussing something with defendant Laurendau, after he’s exited the building (and within 2 minutes of officers posting the notice), an act which Guntner testified “never happened.” Inexplicably, the clip has been stripped of its soundtrack so the public can’t know what the content of that conversation was.  The preliminary hearing continues on Wednesday at 10:00AM in dept 6.  The remaining defendants, myself included, face a preliminary hearing on May 29th at 1:30PM in Dept. 6.  — Becky Johnson, Ed.

Judge still mulling charges against 4 accused in takeover of former bank

Protesters link arms as the face off with Santa Cruz police last… (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ – A judge declined Monday to issue an immediate ruling in the case of four people charged in connection with the takeover of a former bank last year to allow more time to research the legal issues involved.
“At first blush, I think the people may have some problems with these four defendants,” Judge Paul Burdick said, after hearing the prosecution’s evidence in a preliminary hearing Monday.
Cameron Laurendau, Franklin Alcantara, Edward Rector and Grant Wilson are among the 11 people charged after the takeover of the former Wells Fargo Bank at 75 River St. in late November and early December. They face felony charges of conspiracy and vandalism along with two misdemeanor counts of trespassing.
Detective David Guntner of the Santa Cruz Police Department, who led the investigation into the nearly 72-hour takeover, testified about the evidence, primarily photographs, used to identify those charged.
“Who vandalized the bank?” Alcantara’s attorney, Jesse Ruben, asked.
“I don’t know,” replied Guntner, who said he viewed video of Alcantara entering and exiting the bank, but he didn’t know how long he remained inside.
Those involved in the bank takeover left peacefully after nearly 72 hours of negotiations with police.
Burdick said the case posed a number of legal issues, including a lack of evidence proving the four defendants entered the building after being requested to leave. He ordered all four defendants, their attorneys and prosecutor Rebekah Young back to court Wednesday, when he’s expected to issue a ruling on whether to hold the four to the charges.
Supporters of the so-called Santa Cruz Eleven have said the District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the constitutional right to protest. In a letter published in the Sentinel earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Santa Cruz County chapter called for the charges to be dismissed.
Last month, a judge dismissed the vandalism charge against two other defendants, Alex Darocy and Bradley Allen, but held them to charges of felony conspiracy and misdemeanor trespassing. The two, whose attorneys say they were at 75 River St. acting as journalists, are scheduled for trial next month. A preliminary hearing for the other five defendants is still pending.

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

April 18, 2012

Original Post

Becky Johnson: One Woman Talking

April 16, 2012

Original Post

Personal reflections on Robert “Blind Bear” Facer by Becky Johnson

God Bless you, Robert Facer, and goodbye, my friend. And thanks to you for your visionary Teepee, your message of compassion for each human being, and all of the wisdom you brought to us.