blake 3:17
31st January 2014, 20:41
From the Village Voice, link to full article at bottom:
After Eight Months, Brooklyn Anarchist Jerry Koch Set Free After Refusing To Testify Before Grand Jury
Eight months ago, Gerald "Jerry" Koch, a 24-year-old environmental and political activist, was called to testify before a New York grand jury. The subject of the grand jury hearing was believed to be a 2008 incident in Times Square, in which a homemade explosive device was detonated in Times Square, damaging a military recruiting office there. It wasn't his first time being called; in 2009, when he was 19, he was asked to testify before a grand jury and declined, saying he knew nothing about what happened.
When he was called again last year, Koch refused again, this time in stronger terms. He released a statement that read, in part, "I will once again refuse to testify to the federal grand jury in ethical resistance to participation in a fruitless exercise of fear-mongering and government intimidation." Like many anarchist activists, he believed that the grand jury was more like a fishing expedition, designed to get information about activist circles.
Federal District Court Judge John F. Keenan was unhappy with Koch's decision to stay mum. He held Koch in contempt of court and ordered him to be jailed at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Correctional Center for "an indefinite period of time."
That constitutionally dubious sentence ended yesterday, when Koch was finally released. According to a website kept by his supporters, his attorneys filed what's known as a "Grumbles motion." A Grumbles argues that confining a grand jury resister to jail isn't supposed to punitive, merely "coercive"; that is, it should persuade you to testify. Since Koch never did, his attorneys argued, the sentence had become punitive and should be ended.
The New York Anarchist Black Cross obtained the full order stemming from yesterday's hearing, in which Keenan grudgingly accepts that argument. (We've embedded the full order below.)
"Koch has chosen to remain in contempt -- indeed, he promises continued and endless contempt -- but petitions the Court to be released so that he might be spared the remaining consequences of his choices," Keenan wrote. He called Koch's theory that the government subpoena was based upon his political beliefs a "delusion of grandeur," adding, with noticeable sarcasm, "There is simply no evidence that the government, threatened by Koch's subversive prowess, seeks to bring him before a grand jury on a pretext, either to gain access to the treasure trove that is his circle of friends or to send an ominous message to political dissidents."
Nonetheless, Keenan added, he would release Koch, despite the "fanciful" allegations made about government misconduct in many of his legal filings, including a claim that he was being illegally electronically surveilled (a claim the state denied). More important, he said, were Koch's statements that he was physically and mentally suffering in prison: losing weight, developing joint problems, and becoming depressed. Although Keenan said he was "sympathetic" to Koch's suffering, the real issue, he said, "is how Koch's health or happiness at MCC will affect his reluctance to testify."
Ultimately, Keenan ruled, "[T]he Court finds it more likely that Koch will only derive increasing grim self-satisfaction from his position. The more unstable he gets, the more he will be presented as a martyr and perceive himself as such. Koch has already decided that this type of notoriety is more valuable than his health and freedom in the short run and the Court sees no basis to conclude that he will reverse that calculus." Koch's "reflexive ideology that forbids his cooperation with the serious investigation at hand," the judge added, would not be moved.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/01/jerry_koch_anarchist_brooklyn_grand_jury_resister. php
After Eight Months, Brooklyn Anarchist Jerry Koch Set Free After Refusing To Testify Before Grand Jury
Eight months ago, Gerald "Jerry" Koch, a 24-year-old environmental and political activist, was called to testify before a New York grand jury. The subject of the grand jury hearing was believed to be a 2008 incident in Times Square, in which a homemade explosive device was detonated in Times Square, damaging a military recruiting office there. It wasn't his first time being called; in 2009, when he was 19, he was asked to testify before a grand jury and declined, saying he knew nothing about what happened.
When he was called again last year, Koch refused again, this time in stronger terms. He released a statement that read, in part, "I will once again refuse to testify to the federal grand jury in ethical resistance to participation in a fruitless exercise of fear-mongering and government intimidation." Like many anarchist activists, he believed that the grand jury was more like a fishing expedition, designed to get information about activist circles.
Federal District Court Judge John F. Keenan was unhappy with Koch's decision to stay mum. He held Koch in contempt of court and ordered him to be jailed at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Correctional Center for "an indefinite period of time."
That constitutionally dubious sentence ended yesterday, when Koch was finally released. According to a website kept by his supporters, his attorneys filed what's known as a "Grumbles motion." A Grumbles argues that confining a grand jury resister to jail isn't supposed to punitive, merely "coercive"; that is, it should persuade you to testify. Since Koch never did, his attorneys argued, the sentence had become punitive and should be ended.
The New York Anarchist Black Cross obtained the full order stemming from yesterday's hearing, in which Keenan grudgingly accepts that argument. (We've embedded the full order below.)
"Koch has chosen to remain in contempt -- indeed, he promises continued and endless contempt -- but petitions the Court to be released so that he might be spared the remaining consequences of his choices," Keenan wrote. He called Koch's theory that the government subpoena was based upon his political beliefs a "delusion of grandeur," adding, with noticeable sarcasm, "There is simply no evidence that the government, threatened by Koch's subversive prowess, seeks to bring him before a grand jury on a pretext, either to gain access to the treasure trove that is his circle of friends or to send an ominous message to political dissidents."
Nonetheless, Keenan added, he would release Koch, despite the "fanciful" allegations made about government misconduct in many of his legal filings, including a claim that he was being illegally electronically surveilled (a claim the state denied). More important, he said, were Koch's statements that he was physically and mentally suffering in prison: losing weight, developing joint problems, and becoming depressed. Although Keenan said he was "sympathetic" to Koch's suffering, the real issue, he said, "is how Koch's health or happiness at MCC will affect his reluctance to testify."
Ultimately, Keenan ruled, "[T]he Court finds it more likely that Koch will only derive increasing grim self-satisfaction from his position. The more unstable he gets, the more he will be presented as a martyr and perceive himself as such. Koch has already decided that this type of notoriety is more valuable than his health and freedom in the short run and the Court sees no basis to conclude that he will reverse that calculus." Koch's "reflexive ideology that forbids his cooperation with the serious investigation at hand," the judge added, would not be moved.
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/01/jerry_koch_anarchist_brooklyn_grand_jury_resister. php