Previously on the "Inducing Panic Affair"--my video crew and I were arrested for "Inducing Panic", and awaiting our court date.
The local paper wrote up the event, and made it sound a bit more serious than it actually was--I got some ribbing at the office about it. I contacted the management of the public access TV station, and asked about our next steps. They informed me that, since I wasn't using their equipment, they disavowed any knowledge of the event. So much for their "video for the people--take down THE MAN" philosophy. In a huge stroke of luck, our producer "Brian" was working as an intern at one of the largest law firms in the city. We met with one of their attorneys at a local restaurant--he was ready to take on the city, and more importantly, was going to do it "pro bono" (for free). We went over the details, and he told us he would handle the whole thing--we didn't need to appear in court. We thanked him profusely and crossed our fingers.
Since I wasn't in court, the next events were described by our attorney:
By this point, the issue was getting some negative attention from the city, and it became clear they wanted the whole thing to go away--they also didn't want us to sue the city for wrongful arrest, since we had a hot shot lawyer on our side. So, the attorneys and the judge set to find ways to throw out the charges. The first step was to view the only evidence--the footage from my camcorder. Officer Fife had confiscated it, but they needed to find a way to see the video. Apparently, courtrooms at the time had little or no methods to show video, so they ended up going to the jury holding room and spent some time figuring out the connections. The prospective jurors got a good laugh from that.
The first charge to be thrown out was mine--why? Because I wasn't on the video (because I was shooting the video). They managed to find ways to whittle down the other charges until they were down to "pedestrian on the highway" (a minor misdemeanor) for the two "Habba Vice" cops--it was on the footage, so they couldn't ignore it.
Our attorney met with us again, and gave us two options--a) fight the remaining charges which totaled $15 in fines, and consider suing the city for wrongful arrest (which he was clearly ready to do), or b) pay the $15 and sign a statement that we would not sue the city. We were basically kids at the time, and wanted this to go away, so we chose B.
So our story comes to a close? Not quite yet. Next time, we peer through the looking glass…