Court Update: April 20

COURT UPDATES:

Today in court proceedings for the Aston Park/sanctuary camp defendants who are currently facing trial on “felony littering” charges:

The day was a lot like yesterday; during voir dire/preliminary questioning (not in front of a jury), cop Sam DeGrave continued to go photo by photo through the 257 pieces of additional evidence that he “found” late Tuesday night that had not been uploaded in the discovery. There was some confusion as the Assistant District Attorney wrapped up her questions about the photos and DeGrave pointed out that she still hadn’t shown all of them. The Court took an early recess to sort things out. During recess, it was established that Assistant District Attorney simply had not opened an additional folder and that there wasn’t more “new” evidence (outside of the Tuesday night dump) that had not been given to the defense attornies. All evidence should have been given to the defense in discovery and there are many questions relating to the handling and completeness of the evidence overall. Direct questioning took most of the day.

Many of the photos came from the intensive APD surveillance of the “streetside” distribution of food, clothing, and camping gear that happened each week in Aston Park (before APD banned most of the people who did that work from all parks), and surveillance of the (Until We’re All) Free Store, which ran a free grocery pick up/delivery program.

Cross-examination of DeGrave began late in the day, and will continue tomorrow. The court is anticipated to rule on the defense’s motions from yesterday (two motions relating to suppressing evidence, and a motion to dismiss the case entirely) once DeGrave’s voir dire wraps up and the examinations of cops from the Criminal Investigations Division in relation to the evidence handling conclude. The jury— which had stood at 6 jurors who hadn’t yet been excused for cause or by either party—has now been released, meaning that jury selection will have to start again from the beginning, unless rulings in the coming days on any of the defense’s motions impact the trajectory of the trial.

Because the jury has been released, there will not be time to select a jury and try the case before ADA Katie Kurdys goes on vacation May 4. This means that the case will almost certainly be continued, meaning trial will be postponed again, and no one can say for how long.

SUPPORT NEEDS:

Given that journalists doing their jobs reporting on a protest were found guilty of trespassing yesterday, and that the City of Asheville is facing a lawsuit from the ACLU over its unconstitutional park ban policy and process, there’s a lot to see around here. Please lift these stories up in your networks, and if you have connections to national media, now is a particularly good time to use them, tell us about them, etc!

AND ALSO:

Mr Rogers knew about arts festivals. 

Thanks y’all, we love you!