Defendants Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller are on trial for allegedly continuing to film Franklin County Jail fficials after they were asked to stop.
This is an updated version of a story posted at 10:44 this morning.
A large group of supporters were on hand Monday at the Franklin County Courthouse, where Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an alleged illegal filming incident last July at the Franklin County Jail. Eyre and Mueller, founders of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, were arrested by Greenfield police after allegedly failing to comply with requests by authorities to stop filming at the jail. GREENFIELD - The trial of two New Hampshire men accused of illegal filming last July at the Franklin County Jail began Monday in Greenfield District Court, where closing arguments are tentatively scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller, founders of the "pro-police accountability" organization Cop Block -- which advocates filming or photographing police and posting their images online -- are charged with resisting arrest and with refusing to stop digitally recording a July 1, 2010, confrontation with jail officials and Greenfield police.
The defendants, who had gone to the jail to bail out two friends being held on drug and weapons charges, claim there were no posted signs prohibiting them from filming at the facility. They also claim officials failed to produce any documentation of policies precluding the use of recording devices at the jail, which is why they continued filming their encounter with law enforcement officials.
Eyre and Mueller passively resisted being arrested by letting their bodies go limp and falling to the ground, according to testimony, which concluded late Monday afternoon.
"I did not want to participate with my own caging," said Eyre, adding that law enforcement officials were groundless when they arrested him and Mueller.
The defendants are so-called voluntaryists who adhere to the principles of a stateless society based on natural law, not a formal system of rules and regulations with law enforcers such as police and other agents of the government.
Despite Eyre and Mueller's anti-government views, two government-appointed attorneys were seated at the defense table throughout Monday's proceeding. Both Mueller and Eyre were seen regularly conferring with the lawyers.
About 60 supporters of the duo packed the courtroom, clapping loudly each time Eyre and Mueller made what supporters believed were valid or persuasive arguments in their defense.
Some of the supporters wore hats, while one held a small sign stating, "No victim, no crime." Many members of the entourage wore T-shirts promoting Cop Block or Liberty on Tour, Eyre and Mueller's mission to blend on-the-road activism with new media to promote the voluntary-society concept.
The majority of supporters declined to stand whenever a court officer issued the standard "all rise" command each time Greenfield District Court Judge William F. Mazanec III entered or exited the courtroom.
Monday's session also was generally noisy, with audience members breaking into spirited conversation each time the judge, attorneys and defendants held sidebar conversations at the judge's bench.
Most Massachusetts judges require silence when court is in session, and outbursts of any kind -- including applause or laughter -- are not tolerated. But applause and laughter were in abundance at Monday's proceeding, as audience members routinely reacted to testimony they found humorous or objectionable.
Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Banks hammered home the point that Eyre and Mueller were repeatedly told they could not film at the jail and failed to heed officers' orders to stop.
"They refused; they were defiant," Banks said.
The prosecutor maintained that Mueller swung an arm as he was being taken into custody, triggering a resisting-arrest charge. That remark elicited loud laughter and comments from the audience.
Eyre and Mueller said a jail official initially told them they could film the process of posting bail for the release of their jailed friends. The men left to retrieve bail money, they said, but were told upon returning that they could not film that process after all.
Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller's Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle, or MARV, was parked outside the Franklin County Courthouse on Monday. The men are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an incident stemming from an encounter with law enforcement officials at the Franklin County Jail last July. The pair, founding members of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, were arrested after allegedly refusing to stop filming at the county jail.
The defendants both testified that there was nothing surreptitious about their attempts to chronicle the procedure, which was recorded and later posted online. Prosecutors claim law enforcement officials were unaware they were being filmed, a violation of so-called wiretapping laws.
Greenfield Police Sgt. Todd Dodge, who was among the officers who took the defendants into custody last July, testified that he had responded to a call from jail officials seeking police intervention to help remove Eyre and Mueller from jail property.
Capt. Brian Schindler, of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, said he was unsure if Eyre and Mueller were members of the media, who must get permission from the sheriff in order to use recording devices at the jail.
"I wasn't sure of (their) intentions," Schindler testified.
In an effort to control the large crowd, courthouse guards sealed off a hallway abutting the courtroom where the trial is being held.
Eyre and Mueller launched a media blitz in advance of Monday's trial. Their Cop Block website includes detailed accounts of the Greenfield case, which they had hoped would be dismissed.
They have refused to accept any plea agreements in the case. On Monday, Mueller wore a T-shirt whose front stated "No Victim, No Crime" and whose back listed the address of a website, www.nevertakeaplea.org.
It remains unclear if the Northwestern District Attorney's office had offered any plea deals prior to the case going to trial, but several charges initially lodged against the defendants were later dropped.
Meanwhile, Eyre and Mueller's black-and-gold mobile home -- dubbed MARV, which stands for Mobile Authority Resistance Vehicle -- was parked outside the courthouse on Monday.
Despite their legal woes, the men are taking their Liberty On Tour mission to the streets this summer, espousing their voluntary-society views and promoting the practice of publicly challenging law enforcement officials by filming and photographing them.