[msb-alumni] Charge Dismissed Against Harcz Minutes Before Trial

From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:44:08 -0400

Blank
Charge dismissed against blind protester at Michigan Capitol
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press

MASON — Minutes before a trial was to begin, Ingham County prosecutors on
Monday
dismissed a charge against a blind activist who was arrested while
demonstrating
outside the state Capitol in Lansing last year.

Paul Joseph (Joe) Harcz, 63, of Mt. Morris was charged with resisting and
obstructing police, a two-year felony.

Harcz was arrested Sept. 17 when he tried to cross a police barricade to enter
a
25th-anniversary celebration of the federal Americans With Disabilities
Act (ADA) taking place on the Capitol lawn, after police identified him as a
protester they believed was intent on disrupting the event.

"In the interests of justice, the people are moving to have this case
dismissed," assistant Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Stevens told Ingham Circuit
Judge
William Collette, minutes before the bench trial was to begin.

Stevens didn't elaborate. But Interim Ingham County Prosecutor Gretchen
Whitmer,
who was appointed to the post after Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings was charged
with prostitution-related charges, said she made the call after reviewing the
file, viewing a videotape of the incident and discussing the case with Stevens.

"While we all have an interest in ensuring protests at the Capitol remain safe,
we must also observe an individual's fundamental right to protest," Whitmer
said in an e-mail to the Free Press.

Stevens asked for the dismissal after a blind witness for Harcz asked
prosecutors to move the case to Lansing because of difficulties accessing the
Mason
courthouse through public transit and because of ADA issues at the historic
courthouse.

Stevens told Collette the courtroom is ADA-compliant and the courthouse has
Braille markings in the elevator, but still requested the dismissal.

Harcz was protesting the fact that organizers chose the Capitol as the site
for
the event when the historic building lacked Braille signage and other features
to make it fully ADA compliant. He also was protesting the fact that some of
the
organizers of the event, as permitted by federal law, paid sub-minimum wages to
some disabled workers.

Harcz, who said Sunday that he has rejected offers to plead to a lesser charge,
maintains that blocking him from the event was a violation of his constitutional
rights. Organizers have confirmed that he was a member of one of the committees
that planned the ADA celebration.

After the dismissal Monday, Harcz said he still is unhappy about what he said
was a violation of his rights and the rights of others involved in the protest,
and that he plans to sue the Michigan State Police and other parties.

"I think they should be sued back to the Dark Ages," Harcz said outside court.

Mark Kamar, a Lansing attorney representing Harcz, said: "For Joe's sake, I'm
just glad it's over."

The 25-year-old ADA is landmark federal legislation that prohibits
discrimination based on disability, imposes accessibility requirements on
public
facilities
and requires covered employers to reasonably accommodate employees with
disabilities.

Lansing District Judge Hugh Clarke Jr. bound Harcz over for trial last
October
after hearing testimony from one police witness and viewing two videos shot by
police body cameras.

Clarke said Harcz failed to comply with a lawful command from police not to
cross a barricade and that is sufficient probable cause to support a charge
of resisting or obstructing police.

Clarke said it was reasonable for police to establish a buffer between ADA
celebrants and protesters, and that Harcz was never told to leave the Capitol
grounds, only to stay in a certain area of the Capitol a distance from the ADA
celebration.

Terry Eagle, a member and former board member of the National Federation of the
Blind of Michigan — and an advocate for people with disabilities — said
it's ironic that the Ingham County courthouse is also not fully ADA-accessible,
partly because it isn't adequately served by public transit.

"This causes an unnecessary financial and other hardship for those persons with
disabilities scheduled to testify at the Harcz trial," Eagle said Sunday,
adding that a blind witness asked the prosecutor's office to move the trial to
Lansing.

"It is up to the party (who is charged) to make the motion for a change in
venue
to accommodate him/his witnesses," Whitmer said in an e-mail Monday morning
before court convened. "Despite that, we will raise that issue in court today
on
his behalf."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Follow him on Twitter
@paulegan4.

[msb-alumni] Charge Dismissed Against Harcz Minutes Before Trial

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