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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Protest Occupy LR 4 turn down plea deal; trial rescheduled

Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 12:01 PM

BUSTED: Police made arrests in May at Occupy LR site.

Brian Chilson
BUSTED: Police made arrests in May at Occupy LR site. Mac Miller is at left.

A trial was scheduled in district court today on a trial of four people arrested when they refused to leave the Occupy Little Rock camp downtown when the city moved to clear it May 16. David Koon reports:

Today's scheduled trial for four Occupy Little Rock protestors turned out to be a non-event, with the four protestors refusing to take a plea deal and then being told that their trial would have to be rescheduled until Jan. 23, 2013 because witnesses weren't there to testify.

Glenn "Mac" Miller, one of the four protestors arrested in May, said prosecutors offered to drop all charges after six months if they weren't arrested again, an offer which was refused. After defense attorney John Wesley Hall conferred with Judge Alice Lightle and prosecutors, Miller said the four defendants were told that some of the police officers involved in their arrest weren't there to testify. Their hearing was then rescheduled. Reached after the hearing, "They have choked our free speech for another four months," Miller said. "What's the problem?" Miller said he never considered taking the plea deal, because a hearing to determine their limits of their rights to peaceably assemble and protest was the reason the four decided to be arrested in the first place.

Greg Deckleman, another of the four OLR protestors arrested in May, said that he believes prosecutors thought they'd take the deal. "I think it'll be much different [in January]," he said. "I hope they've got their ducks in a row, because we do."

Tags: Occupy Little Rock, Mac Miller, Greg Deckleman, John Wesley Hall

        
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