Charges Dismissed Against Moral Monday Protesters

On Friday, October 11 Wake County District Court Judge Joy Hamilton dismissed  trespassing charges and failure to disperse charges at the close of state’s evidence and then dismissed charges related to violation of building rules at the close of the defense’s evidence for married couple Douglass Ryder and Vicki Ryder. The outcome of the two cases could signal a change in the direction that the Moral Monday cases will take or it could just be an aberration. It will be interesting to see the outcome of future trials in the coming weeks.

The strategy of the Moral Monday protesters in demanding trials is a good one. There are over 900 people awaiting trial and the first three trials, with two being combined took two full business days. Assuming that there is an average of 1 trial a day, that equals out to over 900 days of trial ahead. Assuming that the courts are open five business a week, which they are not without taking holidays into account, at the current pace with 52 weeks a year that is 260 trials year. So it will take approximately three and a half years to do all the trials assuming that there are no holidays and just one Wake County Assistant District Attorney is assigned to do the trials.

So if theoretically the trials continue at this pace, there will be at least three more legislative sessions before the trials conclude. However, there is a strong possibility that there will be some action taken by the Wake County District Attorney’s Office given the negative publicity that this is receiving. All of the protesters have a Constitutional right to a trial and they are exercising this right.

Another interesting facet to these trials is if this will encourage future protests in the next legislative session. If you can protest, even with the threat of arrest on a minor charge and not face prosecution for years or no prosecution at all, there is no incentive not to protest. The threat of arrest and prosecution may no longer be a valid threat for future protesters. Should the Wake County District Attorney’s Office decline to prosecute the  remaining Moral Monday protesters this will create an even more interesting situation. It would be up to either the Attorney General’s Office to name a special prosecutor or the state legislature to pass a law giving them the authority to name a prosecutor to prosecute people arrested by the State Capitol Police. There was a law that was passed by the state legislature this session giving them the authority to hire an attorney to defend the new Voter ID Law that went into affect this year. They have hired an attorney from South Carolina and this has been in the news recently. It highlights the discord between the Attorney General and the Governor and the State Legislature.

Should the state legislature give itself the authority to hire prosecutors to prosecute individuals arrested by the State Capitol Police, this would be a fascinating foray by politicians into the local criminal justice system and would generate further headlines. Regardless of the outcome of the Moral Monday prosecutions, the mixture of politics and criminal justice will continue to make headlines both in North Carolina and nationwide. Please see below for the news story regarding the dismissal of charges and check back for future updates.

http://www.wral.com/charges-dismissed-for-2-moral-monday-protesters/12989063/