25 Sep 2000

Keith Henson <hkhenson@netcom3.netcom.com>

The morning went about as expected. Graham and I were over to the court at 7:30. I was on the list in the same court (H4) as last time. This time Robert Schwarz (note corrected spelling, no sign of Gage or Mandel today) came in and told us the arraignment had been moved to H2, where we where the only case (interesting).

Out in the hall between courts, Graham put Robert on notice (in a good natured way) that he and his office were being by scientology and that the evidence supporting the charges was ridiculous. Robert responded that the evidence was strong and that they were going to amend the charges and gave the section names, 653M and 422.6. He only seemed to be aware of the copyright case and claimed to know nothing about the other litigation history of scientology and me. Graham and I informed him of my 6 other cases that involved scientologists Barton, Hoden and Jones.

We moved over to H2 (which meant that several of the people who were coming for support missed the hearing by being diverted to H4). Graham and I were up at the defense table and Robert was making a big deal out of me taking GPS readings. I told him I didn't take them. (Which is true, Shy David took them, at the time I thought what he was doing was just silly.) One of our observers noted that that prosecutor Schwarz was quite nervous.

After the judge came in it went quickly. I didn't waive speedy trial. The judge set a date for a jury trial, Oct 30, trial readiness conf. on Oct 27, and pretrial conf on Oct. 11. He maintained the 300 yards standoff distance and would not let me clarify if that is from the buildings at gold base or from the property edge. Neither would Robert when we talking to him afterwards, but I think from the judges comments he did not intend that I should be denied the only route up to I 10. We will see if they blockade Sanderson road and arrest me. That would make a *really* good story.

Graham argued that the picketing restriction should be lifted be cause the case was about messages and not missiles and it did not pass constitutional muster, prosecutorial muster or any other kind of muster. The judge disputed Graham's characterization stating it was the usual condition for bail (not to communicate with or harass the "victims") and it would stand unless Henson wanted his bail revoked. He refused to hear further argument on either the restriction or its ambit. He rejected any argument that the order prevented Henson from entering Hemet. The judge said there were other routes, which would not require more than a ten minute inconvenience to Henson. From additional comments about route 74 the judge is not aware that gold base owns the property all the way to Sanderson road.

Afterwards on the way out of the court Robert stated out of the blue that he was not a member of a conspiracy. I said that was a weird thing for him to say since I didn't think had mentioned conspiracy. He then admitted reading my net postings. (Hi Robert!) I don't think I said that in a posting either, but I suppose it could be implied from what others have said--and there is this odd matter of being handed (in court) an unmailed notice to appear.

Robert, if you are reading this, you are more than welcome to respond. I would sure like to know how I came to be handed (in court) the document that should have been mailed to me. There may well be an innocent explanation. You can email to someone, even me, if you don't know how to post.

Hoden was sitting in the court and Graham introduced him for those of our party who did not know him. After the rest of us were out in the hall, he must have talked the bailiff into escorting him out of the courthouse and keeping our party (Ida, Arel, Graham and me) in the courthouse till he was gone from the parking lot. How silly!

Afterwards Arel and Graham went out to picket gold for an hour. (Graham reported the same behavior of trying to keep people out of view of the picketers.) I went back to Ida's.

I don't want this method of keeping people from picketing to be rewarded. The ARSCC guidelines encourage putting your body on the line and discourage hiring picketers. I have applied for an exemption based on being restricted by the court. I decided to apply the principle of doing multiple good things at once. There are a number of homeless shelters in town, one of which is Valley Restart. http://www.geocities.com/valleyrestart/. They often serve as places where homeless who are willing to work pick up casual jobs and this one is right on a bus line which stops at gold.

I called the director, Don Edwards about getting some bodies to picket gold. Don came right out and said they would not consider it, it was just too "political." He also mentioned that they make radio public service announcements out at a studio at gold. I asked him if saying he was afraid was a fair characterization of his reason for not considering an opportunity for the homeless to earn a few bucks and he said that was close enough.

More later.

Keith Henson

Reporting from Occupied Hemet.

PS. I have a nearly an inch thick mess of papers from the court. They make fascinating reading. I will do the best I can to get them scanned in.

The conclusion by Tony Greer after 7 single pages off discussion was:

"In reviewing all of the Internet posting I did not see any direct threat of violence toward the church or any personnel of the church. It does appear that Henson is responding to statement on the explosive web site [actually alt.engr.explosives] and does not directly refer to the church. This appears to be an on going battle between Henson and other anti-scientology people."

"This case will be submitted to the District Attorney's Office for review."