Obstruction Charges Against Baggarly Dropped: DC Attorneys Decide Not To Prosecute

16 July 2002

by D.D. Delaney, Port Folio Weekly

Norfolk Catholic Worker peace activist Steve Baggarly did not have to appear in Washington, DC, district court on July 10 to face the misdemeanor charge of obstructing access to the U.S. Capitol grounds. On July 5 the prosecution dropped the case.

Baggarly was among 13 others scheduled for trial that day for sitting down in one of the driveways to the U.S. Capitol during a Columbia Mobilization march and rally on April 22. He is the only Hampton Roads resident in the group.

The same charge against seven non-local women arrested in a second driveway was still alive at press time, with a July 17 court date scheduled.

The Columbia Mobilization demonstration was called by a coalition of several groups united against U.S. policy in Columbia, where civil war and the war on drugs have converged to create a 20-year record of some of the worst human rights abuses in the world.

According to Baggarly, an average of 15 Columbian civilians are killed in massacres every day. Many of the killers are said to have been trained at the U.S. Defense Dept.'s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation [WHISC] -- formerly the School of the Americas [SOA] -- at Fort Benning, GA.

Baggarly says he doesn't know why charges were dropped, but "it feels like it's another refusal on the part of the powers that be to hear the truth about what our government does in Columbia." The group was "hoping to bring to court testimonies of people tortured or resent for massacres." The dismissal "could be a way to keep the whole thing quiet."

Matt Smucker, media director for the national School of the Americas Watch [SOAW] in DC, says "a lot of civil disobedience cases are dropped like this in the Capital. We don't know why." For those charged it's something of "a relief," but "at the same time it's an opportunity lost to get the issue out there."

Becky Johnson, an SOA Watch member still facing trial on July 17, agrees that, should charges against her group be dropped, "I'd be a little disappointed that we weren't able to give our case in court but I'd also say that it's a triumph of justice."

Prosecutor for both cases, assistant DC attorney John Han, could not be reached for comment.

Baggarly, with Bill Frankl-Steit of the Catholic Worker Farm in Goochland, still faces a charge of criminal trespass for climbing to the top of a parked B-52 bomber at the Langley Air Force Base AirPower show on June 22 with a banner protesting weapons of mass destruction. That trial is scheduled for Sept. 12 in federal court in Newport News.