A state jury deliberated for less than two hours Friday before finding two more (de)Occupy Honolulu protesters guilty of obstructing government operations in connection with the city’s enforcement of the stored-property ordinance at Thomas Square.
The jury found Catherine C. Russell and Blade Michael Walsh guilty for refusing to get out of a tent that the city had tagged for removal the day before. The tent was on the sidewalk.
Russell and Walsh each face a maximum one-year jail term and $2,000 fine at sentencing Monday.
Madori Rumpungworn is already serving a 30-day jail term after another jury found her guilty two weeks ago for getting in the way of city crews at Thomas Square on a different occasion.
Video a city employee recorded at Thomas Square on Sept. 26, 2012, shows Walsh, Russell and another woman sitting on and chained to a wooden forklift pallet inside a tent with their arms interlocked inside PVC pipe "sleeves."
When city crews attempted to open the tent, Russell told them, "No trespassing. I do not consent to your entry," according to the video.
AFTER a city employee opened the tent, then-County Housing Coordinator Trish Morikawa told Walsh, Russell and the other woman, Jehle Kae Phillips-Frankie, that the city was enforcing the stored-property ordinance and that if they refused to exit the tent, they would be arrested for obstructing government operations.
Walsh and Russell each replied, "I shall not be moved."
Then they both replied, "We shall not be moved," and chanted, "Fight, fight, fight, housing is a human right."
They continued to refuse to exit the tent after Honolulu Police Department civil affairs officer Kevin Nakano asked for their cooperation, according to the video.
Russell testified Thursday that she refused to get out of her tent "to protect my stuff."
"It was my last tent. That’s all I had," she said.
She said she was afraid that if she left her tent, the city crews were going to take her belongings and she would never see them again. She said crews had taken things that she needed to survive in previous "raids" and that she was not able to retrieve all of them.
Walsh testified that he stayed in the tent to support his friend Russell in defending her property.
The city crews and police left the park without taking any action against Russell, Walsh and Phillips-Frankie.
When police returned later in the day, they arrested Russell and Phillips-Frankie, who by then were out of Russell’s tent. They did not arrest Walsh because he was not in the park. They later served him a penal summons to appear in court.
Phillips-Frankie was not on trial because she is a fugitive. She failed to appear for a Jan. 20 court hearing and is wanted on a $250 bench warrant.