[Peace-discuss] Chesley crime?

[Jenifer Cartwright]

What a great mother you are, Shirley! Thanks for making the world a better place (John asked us to list what we'd given up for good causes).
   --Jenifer

Shirley Stillinger <shirley.stillinger at gmail.com> wrote:
  This kind of action on the part of the Champaign police is not new:  many of us old-timers remember John Lee Johnson's arrest (while he was a member of the Champaign city council) for resisting arrest in the mid-70's.  He had walked out of Grunt's, a bar on Green St., with a glass in his hand.  The police stopped him for consuming alcohol on public property and, in the process, knocked the glass out of his hand.  He was then arrested for resisting, shoved into a police car, and taken to jail.

Then State's Attorney Tom Difanis took the case to trial; my dear friend Marty Kananishu represented John pro bono.  The trial ended with a hung jury.  Tom took it to trial again (!!!) and, again, the trial ended with a hung jury.  Tom gave up then.

On a personal note:  I let my 15-16-yr-old daughter Mary miss school to attend the second trial, figuring that was more education than she would receive that day in high school.  She is now a criminal defense attorney in El Paso, TX, and cites Marty and that trial as her inspiration.








Note new email address: shirley.stillinger at gmail.com.



       
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