Re: [Lnc-votes] [Lnc-business] UPDATE; Charges against Roger Pope dismissed!

[lnc-...@hq.lp.org]

Thanks for the update, Andy. Glad to hear the bogus charges against Libertarian petitioner Roger Pope were dismissed! Has LNC counsel Oliver Hall gotten back to you? Alicia, do you know whether Oliver is now subscribed to this list?

By the way, I called and spoke with Walter Anger. Told him I was calling on behalf of one of our petitioners who'd been asked to stop petitioning in front of an Arkansas Revenue office. Anger cited a federal court case in Arkansas called Rev. Brown v. Dept of Finance in which he said a judge had ruled in their favor (he didn't know the date of this case, but it should be easy to find), saying the Finance Department could restrict petitioning outside their offices, and he said they intend this to apply this ruling to all stand-alone revenue offices (if an office is inside a mall or something, he said that was different). He claimed allowing petitioning "interferes with our ability to do business" and tried to draw a distinction between the "business side" (ha!) of government and the "political side" such as the state capitol. I told him I would let our attorney know about the case he mentions, but that even if it gives them the legal authority to tell petitioners to leave, which I said I don't believe it does, it doesn't mean that they have to enforce such a policy, only that they may. He said they were going to; I said it's possible that course of action could expose them to legal action. That's pretty much where we left it.

Love & Liberty,

                                 ((( starchild )))

At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee

                               (415) 625-FREE

                                 @StarchildSF

On Apr 27, 2017, at 9:20 AM, petition guy wrote:

I found out yesterday that the charges against Roger Pope in Arkansas were dismissed.  Just as a refresher,  Roger Pope (A Libertarian Party member since 1976,  Roger collected thousands of petition signatures for the Libertarian Party as an unpaid volunteer.  After becoming one of the top,  or maybe even the top,  volunteer petitioners in the Libertarian Party,  Roger started working as a paid petitioner.  Roger was active in the Libertarian Party of Illinois for years,  even hosting meetings at his house.  Roger moved to Sacramento,  California,  and once served as the Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Sacramento County.  He also ran for office several times as a Libertarian Party candidate.  Roger moved back to Illinois after living in California for 10 years.  He has been living in San Antonio,  Texas since 2005.  Roger has had other jobs outside of politics,  but he's done paid petitioning work on and off for years.) was in Arkansas in the summer of 2016 gathering signatures for a medical marijuana initiative and a casino gaming initiative.  One day he was gathering signatures in front of an Arkansas Revenue office (this is what the DMV is called in Arkansas),  and he was arrested and charged with trespassing (Roger was taken to jail,  given a trespass citation,  and then released the same day).  The Arkansas Revenue office where Roger was arrested is in a government building,  but given that the courts have ruled that free speech still applies in front of DMV's that are in shopping centers,  whether or not this Arkansas Revenue office is a government building,  or is being leased or rented by the government is not relevant.  This is a location where I have personally gathered petition signatures on multiple occasions in 2006,  2011,  2013,  and 2015 (I also worked on a petition drive in Arkansas in 2007,  but I'm pretty sure that I did not go to that location in 2007).  Paul and other petition circulators have gathered signatures at this same location.  

After being arrested and cited,  Roger was given a court date which was to occur a month or two after the petition drive ended.  After the drive ended,  Roger went back to Texas.  He had been told by an attorney who were working for one of both of the campaigns of the initiatives that he worked that it was not necessary for him to return to Arkansas for the court appearance,  as the attorney was going to take care of it for him.  So Roger assumed that it was taken care of,  only to find out later that that it had not been taken care of,  and that a warrant had been issued for his arrest for failure to appear in court.  Roger found out about the warrant after he had applied for a job in Texas,  and been rejected after a criminal background check was run on him,  and the warrant from Arkansas came up,  which caused Roger to be rejected from this job.  Roger then contacted the attorney from the campaign(s) who said that he was going to take care of it for him,  and fortunately for Roger,  a new court date was scheduled,  and somebody from the campaign put up money to cover the expenses for Roger's return to Arkansas.  Roger went to court with this attorney,  and the judge dismissed the charge.  

I will do further investigation to find out when this charge was thrown out,  but I believe that it happened PRIOR to the LP of Arkansas petition drive starting,  and it definitely happened before I had that run in with Walter Anger,  Vice President of Arkansas Revenue,  and the police officer who was with him,  who ran me out of the same Arkansas Revenue location where Roger was arrested,  under the threat that I'd be arrested (they also told me that petitioning had been banned at all Arkansas Revenue locations),  

Regardless of the exact date when the charges against Roger Pope were thrown out,  the fact of the matter is that a judge has basically admitted that this was a bogus charge,  which would indicate that THEY KNOW THAT PETITIONING IN FRONT OF AN ARKANSAS REVENUE OFFICE IS A LEGAL ACTIVITY.  I pointed out in a previous message that there have already been multiple court rulings that have indicated that it is in fact a legal activity to ask people to sign petitions in front of DMV's and other local and state government buildings.  See the Groene vs Seng case out of Nebraska for one example (Note that this case was settled in the federal circuit court of appeals,  and that Arkansas is in the same federal circuit court of appeals as Arkansas.  I'm pretty sure that there was a similar court ruling out of Missouri,  which is also in the same federal circuit court,).  

So it should be blatantly obvious that the government employees who ran me out of that Arkansas Revenue office for peacefully gathering ballot access petition signatures outside (I was NOT blocking pedestrian traffic either) were clearly in the wrong,  and that they misrepresented the law to me,  which means that they are guilty of Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law (Title 18 United States Code,  Section 242).  They are also guilty of interfering with somebody who is trying to qualify candidates for the ballot (Title 18 United States Code,  Section 245).  

So now the question is this:  what are Libertarians going to do about it?  

In liberty,

Andrew Jacobs

Libertarian Party member since 1996

Libertarian Party ballot access petitioner since 2000