Greenfield, MA Justice System Falls Short Again!

Pete and I were arrested last July by Todd M. Dodge (of the Greenfield Police) for filming inside the Franklin Co Jail, even though officers on scene couldn’t provide or recite any statue, law or policy that would limit such activity, and charged us with 3 Felonies and 5 Misdemeanors.  Since then we’ve been at the mercy of the state. Required (by force) to attend several courtroom hearings, learn the legal process, file motions and forced to jump through every hoop at the states demands. (See this playlist to follow our 10 month legal fight or this post for all related blogs.)

We’ve been waiting three months (wonder what would happen to us if we made the court wait 3 months?) for judge William F. Mazanec to rule on our two previous motions. Yet, it took another trip to Greenfield to ask him why he was 60 – 90 days over due on his ruling for him to actually rule on them. For those who don’t recall, we put in two motions, one was to dismiss all charges because there was no victim. The other was to dismiss the felony wiretapping because we weren’t secretly recording anyone. In fact several of the police even commented in their reports that they were informed of filming prior to their arrival.

This week I receive a letter from the ‘judge’ denying our motions — see here. This is a huge disappointment because I thought for sure the judge would grant ONE of these motions. Especially the wiretapping motion which the state claims took place via a cell phone, that only one person can possess, yet we both of us are charged with wiretapping (a penalty that carries 5 yrs in prison).

There are so many things wrong with how this case is being handled by the state that I’m pretty much done with the legal process. I’ll show up for court in July and do my part to help the jury realize I’ve done nothing wrong. At the end of the day it’s obvious I can’t get justice inside their walls, so I’m going to tell the truth and hope it sets me, and my best friend, free. If not, then I’ll go to jail.

Pete is about to file a motion to deem the wrongful search of his RV illegal, so stay tuned for that and I wish him the best of luck.

There is a letter writing campaign going on in our behalf, thanks to Shaun Lee, more details here and we hope as many people as possible can make it for the trail on July 18th, 2011. It will be one for the books.