Court Update: April 21

Friday, April 21 ended the second full week of court proceedings for the two Aston Park/sanctuary camp defendants who are currently facing trial for “felony littering” charges.

Keep reading for details, but the major update of the day was that there will be no court next week, and there is currently no date on which the proceedings are scheduled to resume. While no there is no official date to which the trial is continued (postponed), discussions in the courtroom about the Assistant District Attorney’s upcoming vacation, the defense attorneys’ other trials, and other commitments of the court indicate that it will be months before this matter is taken up again.

Friday was the second day of preliminary questioning and testimony from multiple Asheville Police officers related to the mishandling of evidence in this case. Here’s an article with a bit more detail about what was discussed Thursday: Lost Evidence in Asheville Felony Littering Case Further Delays Trial, by Ryan Oehrli in the Citizen Times. Court on Friday involved similar matters: how evidence was collected, and handled, by whom and with what expertise (or notable lack thereof).

The court also ruled to deny another motion to dismiss from the defense, and while there will be no appearances next week, the judge said that she would rule on the remaining motions next week or after.

So: no in-person support is needed next week. But as you can imagine, this is a wild place to be after two solid weeks of very long days in court; after 78 potential jurors took days off from work, arranged childcare, rescheduled medical appointments, and answered deeply personal questions in front of 100 people; and after 15 months of all of us being under 3-year bans from public parks, and with 12 people still under indictment for a felony, with no end in sight for either us or the mountains of public money this is costing Asheville. The wastefulness of it all is just staggering.

We will continue to update you! As we understand more about what this indefinite delay means, we will share more. And of course we will be keeping in touch about the progression of our federal lawsuit against the City of Asheville. In fact, you can read that complaint right here if you’d like!

thanks, we love you, hope to see you in your care bears shirt at the grocery store (or send us a picture!) <3