After pursuing the case for over a year, the City and County of Denver today dropped its trespass charge against librarian Carol Kreck from July of '08. I wrote a diary about the original incident last summer.
Carol and I and a few others had gathered outside a scheduled John McCain "town hall" campaign event at the Denver Performing Arts Complex on the morning of July 7, 2008. We had been waiting in line to get into the event for about 30 minutes - Carol was holding a poster that said "McCain = Bush" and I was wearing a pea pod costume - when a man from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which manages several of the venues at DPAC, and two Denver police officers approached us. Carol was told by the police to give up her sign and was eventually escorted off the premises and cited for trespassing, while I was threatened with arrest for wearing the costume, which I eventually removed.
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Carol pled not guilty to the trespass charge on July 30, 2008. Trial was originally set for October, but there were several continuances in the case. Carol's attorney Pete Hedeen filed a motion to dismiss, which was finally heard (and rejected) in February of this year by County Judge James Breese. Trial was then set for June, but more continuances followed. Jury selection was supposed to begin today, but the city attorney dropped the charge this morning. I am told he noted the probability that a jury would acquit Carol out of sympathy. Carol is now considering whether to pursue a First Amendment case against Denver.