[Peace] Third Trial of Black Activist Patrick Thompson Under Way

[Brian Dolinar]

This report at ucimc.org

On Monday, May 12, 2008, the third trial of Patrick Thompson began with no
coverage in the mainstream media. The local press took great interest in
2004 when two black activists, Patrick Thompson and Martel Miller, produced
the copwatch video *Citzen's Watch* and, as a result, were charged with
felony eavesdropping. On August 23, 2004, Miller was charged with the
eavesdropping, and the very next day, August 24, 2004, Thompson was charged
with sexual abuse and home invasion. A white woman who lived next to
Thompson alleged that he entered her apartment at approximately 7 a.m. in
the morning and attempted to rape her.

The same Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Dobson who was directly
involved in stopping Thompson and Miller from videotaping police (and is
currently named in a civil lawsuit), was the same person who convinced a
grand jury that Thompson should be indicted for these allegations. In the
2004 elections, Dobson was ousted from office, along with the John Piland
administration, and the flimsy eavesdropping charges were eventually
dropped. Media interest in these two black activists waned, but the charges
against Thompson remained.

Dissatisfied with his initial attorney, Bruce Ratcliffe, Thompson made the
bold decision to defend himself in the first trial. He faced Special
Prosecutor Michael Vujovich, appointed after newly-elected State's Attorney
Julia Rietz, who was elected with the help of Thompson and Miller, broke her
promise to drop *all *the charges against Thompson and withdrew herself from
the case. Although Thompson had no formal legal training, the first trial
ended in a hung jury.

Vujovich decided to retry the case. This time, Thompson hired local African
American attorney Harvey Welch, who called only one witness for the defense,
and the second trial resulted in a guilty verdict. At this point, attorneys
Bob Kirchner and Ruth Wyman stepped in, filed a post-trial motion, and in a
rare court decision, Judge Harry Clem reversed the guilty verdict claiming
that Thompson had received ineffective assistance of counsel.

This brings us to the current third trial, expected to run the entire week
of May 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Courtroom A at the Champaign County
Courthouse. Bob Kirchner and Ruth Wyman are representing Thompson.

Jury selection began with an unusually large jury pool. Since no other
trials were set for this week, 81 jurors, twice the usual size, were called
as potential jurors. Still, among them there were only four African
Americans, only a lousy 5% of the jury pool. By the close of Monday, four of
the jurors were chosen.

In the questioning of the prospective jurors, Kirchner made one objection.
When addressing a juror, Vujovich had asked if they could accept that this
case rose and fell on the testimony of one woman. Kirchner objected and
Judge Clem sustained, saying that this was a "misstatement." This case
depends on the testimony of *several* witnesses who will testify in the
coming days.

Absent in the courtroom during jury selection was Mary Schenk, courtroom
reporter for the *News-Gazette*. Last week, Patrick Thompson attended the
sentencing of Brian Chesley (found guilty of getting beat up by the
Champaign police). During a recess, Schenk had the gall to approach Thompson
and ask him if there was going to be anything new in the third trial,
because she was planning on being absent. Champaign Urbana Citizens for
Peace and Justice sent a letter to the editorial board of the
*News-Gazette*requesting that Schenk attend the trial in its entirety
(
ucimc.org/node/2898). Schenk showed up for the first 15 minutes of the
hearing on Monday and then left.

Among new witnesses in the third trial will be Bruce Ratcliffe, Thompson's
first attorney, who was outraged after receiving a subpoena from Special
Prosecutor Vujovich.

Jury selection continues Tuesday morning, opening arguments will follow, and
witnesses are set to begin testimony Tuesday afternoon.
-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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