Group of activists arrested, Keene District Court April 13, 2009

[blackie]

http://nhunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=17958.msg297565#msg297565

Sam ate yesterday after seeing the article. I think he felt like the media was finally responding in the way he had hoped the hunger strike would accomplish.

[coyote]

I doubt Sam is interested in being thought of as a hero. I think he's more concerned with bringing injustice and the abuse of power to more people's attention.

[davann]

Holy smokes:



In another week he'll be able to just slip through the bars sideways.

http://www.keenesentinel.com/articles/2009/05/17/news/local/free/id_356129.txt

The whole hunger strike is not working. Has it even garnered any media attention? I hope he rethinks the not eating.

[blackie]

I can't believe these guys are taking legal advice from Ivy.

[BonerJoe]

I can't believe these guys are taking legal advice from Ivy.

I have a theory that most of these guys like to be dominated by women.

[JWI]

I can't believe these guys are taking legal advice from Ivy.

I have a theory that most of these guys like to be dominated by women.

You should write to the Feds and get a grant to study the sexual habits of Free Staters.  I'll bet that would be easy money.

[Jetfire]

I can't believe these guys are taking legal advice from Ivy.

I have a theory that most of these guys like to be dominated by women.

yes

[blackie]

http://forum.freekeene.com/index.php?topic=799.msg9106#msg9106

I'm taking care of ordering a few books Sam has requested - can someone bring some cash for his commissary with them during next visitation?

Last Sunday, Sam requested US$20.00 in his commissary account. We added US$45.00. Did the jailers not give it to him? I still have the receipt.

He spent it on oatmeal and I don't recall what else.  He did get it.

[blackie]

I can't believe these guys are taking legal advice from Ivy.

I first became aware of the activism in Keene as a result of Ian's imprisonment for contempt.  One of my first comments related my surprise about the lack of any attorneys involved.  Activists who plan on getting arrested should always have at least one attorney with whom they can consult before and after arrest IMHO, but I found that my opinion on this subject is unpopular among activists.  Sam doesn't automatically eschew attorneys, but for some reason he doesn't feel the need to seek one out in this case.

I wish Sam and Ivy the best of luck.

They are gunna need a lot of luck. Now Sam has a "legal team".

Sam’s Jail Blog: Monday, May 18
SamIam at 5:50 pm on Friday, May 22, 2009

Monday, May 18:

Will the wonders of the so called NH “Justice” system ever cease? The prosecutor, now the country attorney, is getting really desperate in his attempt to clean up the mess created by Keene District Court security and the Keene Police Department. The demurs clearly show the charges are deficient and suffer fatal flaws. That presents a problem. They have held me in jail for over a month on baseless trumped up charges, and they need to save face. So they picked the weakest two and dropped them. They are also the two even remotely related to the issue at hand - Burke over stepping his authority, and freedom of the press. Government likes to use the court system they designed to control the discussion and obscure anything remotely damaging to their railroading process.

When all else fails, it’s time to use the good old standby, contempt. Look it up in the statutes, and you won’t find it. It’s a magical charge that one tyrant in a black dress used to jail over 35 people overnight when a cellphone went off in “his” courtroom.

When these judges refer to courtrooms as “theirs,” surely they mean the people’s It was after all designed as an independent party to mediate disputes on behalf of the people. It is after all the people being forced to pay for all of this, including the roughly $3,000 they have spent on your behalf keeping me here.

Only, there’s a problem they need the contempt charge again to save face and keep the case from getting dismissed on the baseless charges. Only problem, I was never in the courtroom and the judge doesn’t have jurisdiction to file contempt charges (yet somehow he can control cameras in the lobby). So what did they come up with? Well, it looks like they are inventing a charge called “common law criminal contempt.” What is it? That’s a good question. My legal team hasn’t found anything about it, and they have yet to explain themselves or levy the charge. I guess they need more time, creating new charges to file a week after arrest must be a tricky process.

My understanding of common law, at least in Texas, is that it’s based on case law. If no case law exists then the judge can simply make it up by doing whatever he wants. So perhaps they have found some obscure case they are hoping to use, or perhaps they are colluding with the judge to invent a charge and have judge Burke rule on it, thereby creating new law. Where’s the victim? Their actions are truly a disgrace to everyone that believes in this so called “justice” system. How far are these people willing to go to assert their authority, rather than admit their mistake and learn their lesson?

Well, apparently even further than that, it is your money they are spending after all. At the end of Burke’s “order” he asks Ivy, my council, to certify that I’m competent to stand trial. In Russia and Nazi Germany political dissidents would be declared by the court to be incompetent to stand trial, declared mentally insane, and locked away in mental institutions so they wouldn’t ever get to trial. Would they be so brazen with me, or are they simply trying some other despicable legal maneuver to railroad me through their system?

Either way, does it really matter? Is this the kind of behavior you want to keep paying for?

In sanity and silence,

SamIAm

PS: Still no response on the radio request, and no response from Van Wickler on blog inaccuracies.

[blackie]

http://forum.pafoa.org/national-11/59863-freedom-press-miranda-rights-violated.html
Posted by dynamitejack on Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association  forum

Freedom of press and Miranda rights violated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJcYZ...e=channel_page

If you were a member of the press would you be outraged if you were thrown in a jail cell for exercising you right of press? Unfortunately in Keen, New Hampshire this has happened to a member of the press named Sam Dodson. Sam was at the court to get a copy of the sign on the wall restricting cameras in the lobby. Lance the court security person had previously claimed it’s an order. Only problem, orders are signed by an issuing judge. This order and had no signature, does not have the court seal anywhere on it and has not even been filed with the clerk. Essentially the order does not exist. Sam brought his video camera into the public court lobby and was recording before a trial and was arrested soon after recording began. The only thing they could charge Sam with at the time was disorderly conduct. Regardless of if you are part of the press you should be disgusted by the fact that our rights are being stomped on! I hope you have the time to read about it, here is a link to Sam's blog that explains what happened: http://freekeene.com/author/samiam/page/2/ he writes letters from his jail cell and mails them to a member of http://freekeene.com/ to post on his blogs. This may seem like a small case but if it happened to Sam it could happen to any other member of the press and no matter how small one person’s right is just as important as one million people's rights.



A group of people in New Hampshire are taking a non-violent stand against big government, they have started what they call the Free State Project and since 2003, 704 people have moved to New Hampshire where they will exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of government is the protection of life, liberty, and property.

Update 5/18
The local news paper finally talked this some depth about Sam's story, which the AP took and hasn't done anything with. Also, a fox T.V. station in Vermont acknowledged Sam was jailed illegally and reported it. There was also a reporter from the Boston Globe that came to Keen, New Hampshire but has not published anything.

Sam is charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, having property without a serial number and failure to process. Sam was charged with failure to process because he is using his right to remain silent and refusing to give his name. Since he won't be processed the court said that they are going to hold him indefinitely. The Keen police already know everything about him because of his fingerprints but refuse to move the case until he tells the courts his name. After 5 weeks of being imprisoned he filed a demurrer against the court for 3 of those charges. What the demurrer stated was that in the first charge of resisting arrest, is unlawful because when Sam was arrested he went limp. If you have watched any of the news stations you surley saw at least one member of the Catholic church arrested for trespassing on the Notre Dame campus and have to be carried away because he went limp. During the civil rights movement people went limp and were not charged with resisting arrest. The second charge against Sam is having property without a serial number. They could not find a serial number on Sam's video camera. The court sent his camera to a camera shop, the camera shop then found the serial number and sent the camera back. The reason the courts haven't dropped the charge is because they just haven't gotten around to it yet. It has been 3 weeks since the camera’s serial number was found.
His third charge of disorderly conduct is unlawful because according to New Hampshire law stats that it is unlawful for On-Duty police officers to allege disorderly conduct. All they can tell you is to leave. Sam was not told to leave he was told to stop recording. It is illegal for the police to stop audio or video recording in a public place because that is a violation of the First Amendment.



Since April 15th Sam has requested a speedy trial, a probable cause hearing, waived his arraignment and entered a plea. In total 4 pages of arguments and case law to support and back up his claims.
The courts response: They send in the county attorney and declare the complaints are not sufficient and that all the complaints are essentially the same thing and they don't have to read them. So they have to spend a lot of money to have the county attorney read these legal documents that Sam is filing, on top of the $80 per day it costs the county the keep Sam locked up.

Also Sam has filed pleas of habeas corpus to the superior court of New Hampshire. Habeas corpus is a legal action through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention. The first writ was denied because it was not written properly; the second one was denied because Sam had yet to process. Remember Sam is being held indefinitely because he was exercising his right to remain silent and refusing to give the courts his name although the court already know all prevalent information needed to charge Sam. Stop and think about how absurd this is.

Now since the Keen courts have realized that Sam is being falsely held they made up a charge for him, Common law criminal contempt. Criminal contempt can only be charged by a judge in a court room. Sam was not in a court room, only in a public lobby. So that begs the question, if the judge can extend his powers outside the court room exactly where does his power stop? On top of that the court is asked Sam’s lawyer if he is competent to stand trial. In Nazi Germany and in Russia the governments would declare defendants’ incompetent to stand trial and send them to insane asylums without trial.

It is truly sad that in the freest country in the world we have public servants running a monopoly that resorts to using desperate tactics to force their will on this free man. If you have hope for this country please make a stand, copy this story to any message boards or blog you have, tell your friends, family or co-workers. You can also contact your local newspaper, T.V. or radio station.

www.freetalklive.com
www.freekeen.com
www.freestateproject.org

http://www.againstmeforum.com/general-chat-f6/freedom-of-press-and-miranda-rights-violated-t3109.htm
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?p=38616728

[anarchir]

Um, Blackie, way TL/DR.

[blackie]

Sam is out of jail?

[blackie]

http://blogofbile.com/2009/06/09/sam-dodson-released-from-jail/

Hello free staters! This is SamIam and the jail has just thrown me out. The forced me to agree to PR terms that I’m already in violation of, I told them I did not understand.  That I did not agree to them. I did not sign them. I requested my attorney who’s going to be here in 10 minutes. And they pushed me out the door, in the orange close. I guess I get to keep them. And gave me all my stuff. I was escorted out. They would not explain anything or put anything in writing. They were told just to release me and so I’m out of jail. Thank you guys for everybody who’s helped me, sent letters, cards, emails, done all the things you had to do to support me along the way and  I’m looking forward to getting back to life and challanging a lot of this in court. Thank you, glad to be out, looking forward to talking all soon. Goodbye.

[fatcat]

Mission Accomplished?

wait, what am I saying, theres no such thing as failure in the NH lib movement.