The following statement was issued by the National
Committee for Justice in Denver
On Thursday, May 6, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office of
Brian Mason moved to dismiss all remaining charges in his district
against Lillian House, Joel Northam, Eliza Lucero, and Terrance
Roberts, citing as his reason that he has “an ethical obligation to
only proceed on charges [his] office can prove and to dismiss charges
that [they] cannot prove.” None of these four defendants, in an effort
to have the charges dropped, agreed to give testimony against other
people in the movement.
We certainly agree with Mason’s conclusion. It has been plain to
people in Aurora and all over the country from the beginning of this
prosecution that the charges levied against these organizers lacked
any real basis. The prosecution has centered on a concerted effort to
discredit these organizers and the peaceful and justified movement for
justice for Elijah McClain by focusing on peripheral acts from
individuals completely unrelated to the organizers or the vast
majority of participants. But the reality is that this case was not
about responding to supposed crimes; it was about stemming a protest
movement of thousands of community members who had come together to
demand justice for a member of their community who was unjustly
tortured and murdered by the police without consequence.
The total baselessness of the charges was given credence by the
March ruling of Adams County Court Judge Leroy Kirby who presided over
the preliminary hearing regarding the central charge in this case.
Lillian House, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero had been charged with
the attempted first-degree kidnapping of eighteen police officers for
holding a protest outside of a police station. Kirby made a rare
decision to dismiss the charge in preliminary hearing, finding no
evidence for the charge, and indeed no evidence that the three
activists had engaged in any act of violence or destruction
whatsoever. We applaud Brian Mason for doing the right thing and
dropping all the remaining charges in his county instead of continuing
to drag these unjustly targeted community organizers through months of
court proceedings, which he certainly had the power to do.
With the prior decision of 18th Judicial District Attorney John
Kellner to drop all felonies against these organizers in his district,
all felony charges have now been withdrawn against these organizers.
We are very glad to see earnest steps toward justice from both new
district attorneys presiding over this case. We continue to call on
District Attorney John Kellner to end the prosecution in total and
drop all remaining charges, which currently include a total of twelve
misdemeanors and low-level offenses against Joel Northam, Lillian
House, and Terrance Roberts. As we have stated previously, not a
single charge would have been filed were it not part of a broad and
punitive attack initiated by the prior administrations against protest
leaders who challenged the impunity of the police. Continuing to put
these peaceful protesters through a grueling court process on charges
representing the remnants of this case is not justice.
It's time to drop the rest of the charges in Arapahoe
County
With the prior decision of 18th Judicial District Attorney John
Kellner to drop all felonies against these organizers in his district,
all felony charges have now been withdrawn against these organizers.
We are very glad to see earnest steps toward justice from both new
district attorneys presiding over this case. We continue to call on
District Attorney John Kellner to end the prosecution in total and
drop all remaining charges, which currently include a total of twelve
misdemeanors and low-level offenses against Joel Northam, Lillian
House, and Terrance Roberts. As we have stated previously, not a
single charge would have been filed were it not part of a broad and
punitive attack initiated by the prior administrations against protest
leaders who challenged the impunity of the police. Continuing to put
these peaceful protesters through a grueling court process on charges
representing the remnants of this case is not justice.
|