Sean O'Reilly Acquitted of "Obstructing a Federal Officer"

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Friday March 03, 2006 05:48

by O'Reillys

Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Last December following a nonviolent break in at the NSA/CIA Pine Gap Sattelite Station (Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia), Sean O'Reilly was arrested during a follow solidarity vigil at the gates of Pine Gap. Sean was charged with "obstructing a federal police officer" merely for questioning the officers right to search his car. Sean went to court in Alice Springs on Monday, the pre-trial hearing of the remaining Pine Gap folks is set fo April with a jury trial later in the year. Pine Gap is used for electronic information gathering and targetting for the U.S. war machine.

SEAN'S REPORT ON MONDAYS HEARING.......
On Monday morning my hearing commenced. Charged with Obstructing a Commonwealth official.The prosecition led off with Officer Parker who provided a much exagerated account of the episode leading to my arrest. It made me wonder if we were talking about the same event. He had me jumping around in front of him, 6-8 inches from his face and blocking

his progress at every turn. He said he warned me 8-10 times and suggested he hadn't arrested me earlier because he was giving me the benefit of the doubt. When in cross examination I suggested I hadn't met a police officer yet who would have tolerated that sort of harrassment he had no response.

He also made the false assertion that he had warned me before commencing the search that he had the authority under section 14 of the Commomwealth Police Act to justify his search but that was not supported by Officer Maass who was detaining Jessica Morrison. Maass seemed to be reciting from a prepared script and several times lost her place.!
Parker had said the whole incident lasted 15 minutes , Maass less than 10 minutes and 2 NT Police gave evidence that only 5 minutes elapsed. Officer Maass became very unsure of facts under cross-examination. At first I was wondering why a third Protective Services Officer and the 2 NT police were called to give evidence as they contributed nothing to the prosecution's case. I was drifting off until the first officer mentionedthat the incident lasted only 5 minutes and I brought it up in cross-examination. The same happened again with the second NT officer and the anomily was not lost on the magistrate.

Later in summing up the prosecutor spoke of 20 minutes and the magistrate questioned how it was getting longer. Interestingly at the lunch break, the prosecutor handed me copies of old cases regarding hindrance which he used in his summing up. Hurriedly we went through them with the highlighter and found just as much material to support nmy case. What also threw the arresting officer was that I asked for his notes and that of Officer Maas. His read that I was arressted at 06.42 am and Maass's notes at 06.18am.

At 4.00 pm after completion of my summing upo tyhe magistrate announced she would adjourn until 11.00am Friday morning when she will announce her verdict. It felt that without providing any witnesses I performed quite well. The video link with Jessica Morrison fell through and given other matters decided it was not worth in my interest to go in the witness box.

FRIDAY VERDICT DAY......
Hi Folks,
I've had a celebratory drink with David and have been doing a few interviews. It was amazing. The Magistrate, Melanie Little, took about 35 minutes to sum up. Basically, she found too many inconsistancies in the evidence provided by the prosecution and the previous cases provided by the the prosecutor re. hindrance appeared to work in my favour.Ms. Little found that there was not sufficient substance in the arresting officer's evidence to prove I hindered him. It just feels great and I'm feeling very happy with my performance in court. It is amazing when you realize during the summation that it looks like it is swinging in your favour.Trust it will be a good omen for the 4 in April and beyond. I've made an application for costs and have a hearing set down for the 23 March with a telephone link up. The prosecutor was sitting in Darwin and watching it all by video link
Cheers,

Sean
Link below for photos of the action last December..........