A Day in Court
by Rachel Lagodka

August 21, 2006. Today was the day the three student leaders, Justin Holmes, president, RJ Partington, vice president, and Dan Curtis, recently deposed president of the statewide SUNY senate, were going to have their day in criminal court. The director of Residence life, Corrinna Caracci was pressing charges of harassment on them because of a verbal exchange in a hallway.

The goal was to get acquitted of the criminal charges of harassment so that this legal precedent would be in place when a Federal Judge considered the preliminary injunction for their civil lawsuit against the college to restore their status as students and student leaders.

I figured I would hear from them about something, since it was such a big day for them. Their personal assistant called me— a zaftig blonde named Dana and asked me if I had an iron. Of course I do not own that particular piece of domestic apparatus, but I did send Sylvie, my twelve year old daughter, to the next door neighbors to ask if they had one we could borrow for the occasion. She returned with a large ironing board and an iron and insisted that since she had borrowed the iron that she should be the one to iron the clothes. Dana concurred that she didn’t know how to iron anyhow and went into the kitchen to eat corn chips. Of course that meant that we would have listen to Sylvie complain the whole time about doing the work she had insisted on doing.

Among her various complaints were that in addition to being wrinkled, the clothes were dirty! RJ’s polyester slacks weren’t so bad, she admitted, but Justin’s off-white jeans had mud stains on them and were frayed at the bottoms. She could not get the wrinkles out of the ass, and I had to stifle comments about that from both her and the assistant who was now helping herself to the salsa. The armpits of the shirts did not smell nearly as bad as Sylvie described them, but then again, it was honest sweat.

Fellow SUNY Students showed up to get the signs from the porch. “Women Against Perjury,” “Free Speech is not Harrassment,” “SUNY Stifles Free Speech,” and “Student Affairs = Ministry of Love.” I suppose the signs might seem a little extreme until you consider what the students have to lose by getting suspended and expelled. This is where they have invested their lives. As activists they are a vital part of the community. They are being ostracized instead of encouraged for their efforts.

After finishing and lamenting her ironing gig, Sylvie had an idea to hold a lemonade fundraiser for the students’ much needed legal defense campaign. She called Justin and explained to him that she would take half the money, since she had invested in supplies and would do all the labor. She set up shop on the neighbor’s lawn

You can’t bring cell phones into the courtroom so I agreed to store them all at my house across the street. By the time things got started I had quite a collection.

There were five faculty members in the courtroom, interested and concerned enough to give up an evening to see if justice would be served, there were members of the press, the community, and about two dozen students.  The supporters and all the witnesses sat as the sun set slowly outside the courtroom window.

I noticed a sign on the wall “No personal checks accepted” Ummm… no duh.

The other one, behind the judge said “In God We Trust” OK, so why do we need the judge then?

One orange suited ankle chained, handcuffed prisoner after another took their place by the public defender who meekly tried to suggest that a bag with a dozen tiny bags of crack in it wasn’t evidence of intent to distribute. The other prisoners rolled their eyes and smirked as she questioned the police officer. “And you only tested one of the little bags, is that true?” “And how big were they, the size of a quarter? So really we’re not talking about ziplock bags full of a substance here but only small bags one inch square…” I would have tried to argue that he actually had his daily dose measured out to maintain his habit. The plastic bag was just his “pill” dispenser.

Finally as darkness fell, the trial we had all been waiting for began. The students took their places beside their lawyer. Three students were being charged, but only two showed up. This was a problem. Judge Judy [Judith Reichler] was very nice about it. She recessed the court for ten minutes so I could run across the street and get Justin’s cell phone to see if there were any messages. It was easy to sort his out of the pile—when you open it, he has a picture of himself with his shirt off, cooking fish in an iron skillet.

When I came back in, I had to explain to the same guard who had forced every other person to leave their cell phones in their cars or at my house, that this particular cellphone was being requested by the Judge. After he concurred with the powers that be, I handed Justin the cellphone. He flipped it open and shook his head “no.” There were no messages from the third defendant. Rather than try the missing student in absentia, or try them separately, she moved to have Dan Curtis come to see her on Monday when she would explain how important it was for him to show up in court. In lieu of that she would issue a bench warrant. Judge Judy was extremely considerate of the student who didn’t show up, it just sucked for the students, who were there, ironed shirts and all, expecting some resolution. Now they won’t have the acquittal before the hearing for the preliminary injunction.

There is some good news. In the end Sylvie made $5.00, $2.50 of which will go to the legal defense fund. Not bad for an hour’s work! We just need a few more volunteers willing pitch in so justice is served.

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