3 months in jail and counting but accused of no crime

[HiPointDem]

The visiting room of the SeaTac Federal Detention Center is bleak. Prison is supposed to be bleak, but it's difficult to appreciate how bleak it is until you've walked inside...Amid all the bleakness, inmate Katherine Olejnik seems surprisingly smiley and optimistic. She is one of two inmates I've come to visit—the other is Matt Duran—who have been sitting in this prison for around three months. (Duran a few days more than that, Olejnik a few days less.)

They haven't been accused of a crime. They haven't even been arrested for a crime. They're here because they refused to answer questions for a federal prosecutor, in front of a grand jury, about people they may (or may not) know: who those people are, who those people hang out with, and what political opinions those people hold.

Supposedly, that federal prosecutor is interested in the smashup in Seattle on May Day and finding the demonstrators who broke the windows of a federal courthouse. But Olejnik says the prosecutor only asked her four questions about May Day, which she answered truthfully: Was she in Seattle on May Day? (No.) Where was she? (Working at her waitress/bartending job in Olympia.) Had she been in Seattle a week before or a week after May Day? (No.) Had anybody talked to her about May Day? (No. In fact, she says she learned most of what she knows about the smashup while she was in court.)

That was all he asked about the May Day vandalism. Then, she says, the prosecutor began rattling off names and showing photographs of people, asking about their social contacts and political opinions. Olejnik guesses he asked "at least 50 questions" in that vein, compared to the four about May Day. That's when she shut down, refused to answer, was found in contempt of court, and was sent to SeaTac FDC.

She doesn't regret it. "I truly believe that people have the right to believe whatever they want politically," Olejnik says, sitting in a chair beside me in her prison khakis. "And it's none of the government's business." As far as she can tell, she's not in prison because she couldn't help with a vandalism investigation. She's there because she refused, on principle, to help the federal government draw a social map of radicals and leftists in the Northwest...

More to the point, they haven't actually been charged with anything, and they have no idea how long they'll be there. Technically, they can leave whenever they decide to cooperate with the federal prosecutor, but both say they're firmly resolved against that...

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849

[snot]

1. K&R'd.

[MrYikes]

2. As a human being, I don't understand.

As an American, I don't understand.

[knitter4democracy]

3. More proof we're a fascist state.

So much for the Constitution I'm supposed to teach my students...

[plethoro]

6. Fascism has been around for a while now. It was fully bloomed under

Bush 2. Now, it is simply in normal operating mode. It is probably too late to reverse it now. Here, you can go to page 11 in Paxton's the five stages of fascism and it will explain where we are. I post the reference late because I couldn't find the explanation with big enough print. Course, I know other people see better than me now.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50082624/Five-Stages-of-Fascism-article

[knitter4democracy]

40. Oh, I know. Still infuriates me, though.

I tell my students all the time that they have to know their rights, don't talk to police officers without a lawyer present, and to keep an eye on the news, protesting when needed. They call me a hippy, but those who've been paying attention are starting to figure it out. Frankly, it's scary.

[plethoro]

41. You're a good teacher, ma'am. I consider this as important

as Math, English and Science, maybe even more so the way things are going.

[knitter4democracy]

43. I teach English and Spanish.

I figure it's part of my curriculum somehow.

[rdking647]

4. to say she wasnt accused of a crime is not exactly true

she is being held in contempt of court... thats is a crime.
i dont know any of the details but if your testifying before a grand jury and the judge says you have to answer a question and you refuse then off to jail you go until either 1. you answer or 2. the grand jury term ends.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. no such thing as the Fifth.

[dembotoz]

7. perhaps the fifth only works for corporate types

[secondvariety]

10. Tell that to Reek Scott.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

12. I can't, I took the Fifth.

[skepticscott]

19. The Fifth Amendment applies to self-incrimination

and doesn't protect you from having to offer testimony that might incriminate someone else, even if you'd rather not.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

20. ergo, to jail they go.

[JimDandy]

22. The 5th can't protect you against incriminating others

of course - only yourself.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. one more reply to this post and I will have a Fifth. anyone?

[JimDandy]

28. LOL

It is so unfair what is happening to these people. I'm sure they could use a fifth about now.

[ThoughtCriminal]

29. If somebody alerts this post

You don't have to testify in front of the DU jury.

[cthulu2016]

34. The Fifth applies to testiying against *yourself*

[CanonRay]

11. At which time, they can convene a new Grand Jury

put you in front of it, and ask you again. Rinse and repeat, theoretically, forever. Most times when the GJ expires, it's over.

[SomethingFishy]

37. You are right what is being done to them is 100% LEGAL..

However wrong it is it is "legal".

Immoral, unjust, wrongheaded, and disgusting.. but legal.

[panzerfaust]

8. Tiny bit of more info from Seattle Times

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012/12/man-ordered-held-for-refusing-to-testify-on-may-day-violence/

[Dustlawyer]

9. The powers that be will ot relinquish it's power voluntarily! We have to fight to get it back!

That is why I back COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR)!!! We should all start demanding this as it would cure what ails us, no representative government! The 1% and the corporations own most of our politicians. We need to get them back. Join me in demanding CCFR in every post, on every forum, recruiting others to help spread the word! Who wants to do something? Who wants to help fight for democracy? One person can make a difference!

[valerief]

13. McCarthyism thrives. nt

[marble falls]

14. Yessirree bob, no political crimes in the ol' USA! And no political prisoners - only tresspassers...

vandals and the contemptuous. Screw the federal prosecutors.

[Patiod]

15. Would "I don't know for certain" be considered contempt?

I would not be willing to say I knew anything for certain about the opinions and leanings of anyone that I know. Have I seen them in X place at X time? Yes/No. Do I know their political opinions? I would have to say "I honestly don't know".

Unless something has been published or someone is photographed carrying a sign in public, how do you really know?

The Clerk of our Quaker Meeting comes to mind - he spent years of Sundays after 9/11 standing in front of the Liberty Bell wearing a "Pray for Peace" sign, so I would tell a prosecutor that I do know Dave believes that people should pray for peace. But I would have to honestly say I don't know for certain any of his other opinions.

Nice theory, but how would this work in real life?

[rdking647]

16. it probably would

[skepticscott]

25. It wasn't for Reagan...

[Romulox]

17. Contempt of court isn't novel or new. nt

[dotymed]

18. These are two brave people who decided

to be true to their principals. How many others, facing the possibility of indefinite detention, didn't? It reminds me of McCarthyism....fascism covers it..

[SidDithers]

21. I don't remember you defending Judith Miller when she was held in Contempt of Court...nt

Sid

[Downtown Hound]

31. Maybe because Judith Miller's lies actually hurt a shitload of people. n/t

[SomethingFishy]

38. Hey, all poor Judith Miller did

was help out a covert CIA agent and lie about WMD's on the front page of the biggest newspaper in the country, helping sell the case for an illegal invasion of a nation that didn't pose a threat to the local groundhogs let alone the USA.

What's wrong with that.

[SidDithers]

42. Hey. You're still here..

Thought you quit after you admitted to being a zombie of a previously banned DUer.

Awesome.

Sid

[wildbilln864]

23. k & r!

[fredamae]

26. This is NDAA Indef Detention at work? n/t

[Recursion]

32. No, this is standard contempt of court at work (nt)

[Downtown Hound]

33. Incarcerating people who had NOTHING to due with the vandalism that occurred

and who were nowhere near said incident is not "standard contempt of court at work." It is exactly what she said it was: punishment for refusing to help the government draw a social map of radicals in the Pacific Northwest.

So basically, it's now okay to lock anybody up for not being a good little Nazi and helping the government draw an enemies of the state list. If you support this in any way, please don't ever call yourself freedom loving, a good American, or a Democrat again.

[Recursion]

35. Jesus Christ people are thin-skinned around here

Yeah, because I was clearly "supporting" this by pointing out that judges have the power to hold unwilling witnesses in contempt, and use it way too often.

[Downtown Hound]

36. Then don't call it "standard," because it isn't. n/t

[MindPilot]

27. When dealing with the feds, the Constitution does not protect you, there is no due process.

That is simply reality. If they want you, they have you and we happily go about our daily lives thinking that "it won't happen to me", but it is only a matter of time. Suicide is the only escape.

[Downtown Hound]

30. All of this over a few broken windows that were replaced within hours

Meanwhile, the criminals who destroyed the global economy or ordered torture and murder in Iraq, well, I think you all know where I'm going with this sentence...

[Egalitarian Thug]

39. K&R Thanks for the follow up, as always. n/t

[Rex]

44. I wonder why the don't do that to people like Karl Rove

that defies a subpoena to report in front of Congress? Guess some animals are more better than others.

[HiPointDem]

45. we all know why. the same reason hitler could kill millions without any consequences (until he

lost his war). the exact same reason.