if this was the single encounter for this man and this magistrate... he was about to sit when you called his name, then appeared a little confused.

maybe he was getting a hardline taken on him, and that's the perogative of the professionals in charge, but they are being taped so there won't be any mistakes about what really happened.

http://freekeene.com/2008/11/14/keene-radio-host-ian-freeman-jailed-over-couch/ for more details.

When you are in court for failing to respond to a previously judicial decision and then in response to a judge's direction to sit down announce that you will only do so under duress... Well, it seems that he decided that is what he wanted to happen.

There are legal procedures for appealing or challenging laws and decisions you don't like. Simply refusing to acknowledge the courts and police is not one of them. There are plenty of abuses of authority out there, but it isn't clear to me from what has been presented that this is one of them.

The website for Ian's radio show is http://freetalklive.com/

All the episodes can be downloaded on there for free in podcast form. I've been known to give it a listen from time to time.

...how ridiculous.

This is nothing compared to the shit his brother Gordon went through.

I hope that guy has money. It's gonna take a lot of cash to get the lawyers necessary to take this to a level where anything positive will be done.

I hope he does, though. Next thing you know you'll get charged a hundred bucks for failing to rake the leaves.

coming to a town near you

>> ^xxovercastxx:
This is nothing compared to the shit his brother Gordon went through.


Yeah!! they didn't even give Ian a crowbar or anything !

The look on the cops/ballifs is total "OMFG, did we just do that?"

Purely a perversion of the judicial system.

http://93days.com/

So this is the story:

Ian Owns a property, the tenant of that property has a musty old couch on the property. The city clerk filed a complaint, Ian asked to face his accuser.

This is the city in which he resides in trying to cover there asses, and using the law to do so. Which is a misuse of judicial power. And frankly a waste of the judicial systems time.

The judge presiding came into this case with his mind already made up as you could see by the way they acted when he did not sit down. As far as I know this is Civil Court, and there was no need to arrest him.


The People who run the Court there are incompetent.

Nice.
Reminds me of methods in East Germany.

>> ^vermonter:
When you are in court for failing to respond to a previously judicial decision and then in response to a judge's direction to sit down announce that you will only do so under duress... Well, it seems that he decided that is what he wanted to happen.
There are legal procedures for appealing or challenging laws and decisions you don't like. Simply refusing to acknowledge the courts and police is not one of them. There are plenty of abuses of authority out there, but it isn't clear to me from what has been presented that this is one of them.


Do you know what that means to do any thing under duress?

It means he formally accuses the court of Illegal Coercion.

In the video that I just posted on video sift. The Judge entered a plea for him! ENTERED A PLEA FOR HIM! ILLEGAL!
http://www.videosift.com/video/More-Info-on-Ian-Freeman-Man-Jailed-for-Couch


BTW the couch is a Halloween decoration.

This guy acted like a total douchebag, failed horribly at representing himself, mocked a judge in court and refused to sit stating it was under duress. He thought he was going to go into court and act like a total badass and it backfired horribly.

All this over a dirty, fucking couch he left in his front yard.

Ian "Freeman"

...not anymore HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

>> ^Hive13:
This guy acted like a total douchebag, failed horribly at representing himself, mocked a judge in court and refused to sit stating it was under duress. He thought he was going to go into court and act like a total badass and it backfired horribly.
All this over a dirty, fucking couch he left in his front yard.


Wasn't just a dirty old couch it was a decoration. Personally I think he did a good job, they called his name.

When they call your name you are supposed to stand, otherwise you are called the Plaintiff, or defense. He did not mock the judge, He was brought back to court after the Judge entered a Non Guilty Plea without his consent. So This court is a mockery of itself.

...

I think he acted like a jackass. Saying that "I do not consent to your process" is contempt of court. I watched the other video and they were just trying to have him follow normal procedure. All he had to do was say "Not Guilty" and then during the trial, that is where he should have brought up his issues.
This is exactly like what happened in the beginning of My Cousin Vinnie and if Joe Pesci couldn't get away with it, then he has no chance....

Not consenting to the process is not contempt. Or else they would have arrested him for felonious contempt right there.

It is your right to dissent, and that is what he was doing.

This is civil court, there was no reason for all of this to happen.

If a man is not free to leave a dirty couch in his yard, than the terrorists have truly won.

"No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law."

- Robert A. Heinlein

He was told very clearly several times to sit down. Instead of sitting down and listening, he stood there, made some douchebag comment about "I am doing so under duress" and tried to be a bad ass. Watch the other video that was linked above to get a much better idea of home much of an ass this dude was being from the moment the hearing started.

>> ^Hive13:
He was told very clearly several times to sit down. Instead of sitting down and listening, he stood there, made some douchebag comment about "I am doing so under duress" and tried to be a bad ass. Watch the other video that was linked above to get a much better idea of home much of an ass this dude was being from the moment the hearing started.


That is the point, to be an ass or your rights will be stomped on, in this case the judge made him into a martyr. So yea good on him, if you haven't noticed that is these groups do.

Though this is a more complex situation, what he was doing was something similar to Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus.

Their rules are wrong, and he decided to not play by them. They have power on their side, but they do not have justice on their side. I don't know if the people of that area are ready to stand together against this sort of flagrant abuse of the justice system, but this is the only way to start change. Stand against them when they are wrong.

Latest report is that Freeman's sentence has been suspended and he is no longer in jail.

The problem was that he wasn't willing to follow the normal procedures for getting his side heard. If he had followed normal procedure, which was to begin with an arraignment to enter your plea. At this time, if you feel unjustly accused you enter not-guilty and move on from there. He was not at his hearing nor his trial yet. He just felt like "I'm being inconvienced, so I will skip the normal judical process because I am a big man with a camera."
Also, while in court you are required to follow the judges orders and should show respect to the court.
From the Wiki...
"Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, deems an individual as having been disrespectful of the court, its process, and its invested powers. Often stated simply as "in contempt", or a person "held in contempt", it is the highest remedy of a judge to impose sanctions on an individual for acts which excessively or in a wanton manner disrupt the normal process of a court hearing.
A finding of contempt of court may result from a failure to obey a lawful order of a court, showing disrespect for the judge, disruption of the proceedings through poor behavior, or publication of material deemed likely to jeopardize a fair trial. A judge may impose sanctions such as a fine or jail for someone found guilty of contempt of court. Typically judges in common law systems have more extensive power to declare someone in contempt than judges in civil law systems."

"I'll be doing that under duress" = "Please arrest me, officer"

It's a deliberate stunt for Ian Freeman's self-aggrandizement. More people heard of him as a result of this stunt than had ever heard of him before. Imprisonment for civil contempt is not uncommon.

http://www.answers.com/contempt%20of%20court

And "manhandling"? That was one of the least violent arrests I've ever seen. They were relatively nice with him.

^punisher:

Sure he was in contempt, but that doesn't justify the ridiculous sentences nor the manhandling. If you don't start by respecting others, I don't see why they should want to respect you. And this is a civil court. Shouldn't things be more, like, civil?

Civil court is known for being very uncivil. The judge should have expected this.

There are much worse courtrooms out there. Like the civil courts for divorce, or car wrecks.

Well would you look at this?

" now appears that the original complaint about the couch was politically motivated, initiated by a Keene bureaucrat in response to questions posed to her by Bernard on WKBK's Talk Back radio show." - http://freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=041398

Touche, looks like the court is being misused by city officials. Some Justice there.

He was totally right, in doing what he did then. A gamble, but with his resume, it must be worth it.

The judges there like to think of these "Free Staters" as Carl Drega type people

Which they are clearly not. This Drega guy was, something totally different, and far apart from out times.

>> ^punisher:
The problem was that he wasn't willing to follow the normal procedures for getting his side heard. If he had followed normal procedure, which was to begin with an arraignment to enter your plea.

The point is, he does not believe in the system and he does not want to 'play their game in order to get his side heard'
Each to their own - some try and fight for freedom using the system that we have and others believe that it is impossible to fix the system through the very same broken system.

Anyone who does a good job of telling the shitty parts of "the system" to fuck off, is OK in my book.

Obviously, dont steal, don't kill, don't rape etc. But IMO what you do with your life outside of that is OK with me. Whether its legal or not, I personally don't give one shit about what a lot of old racist bigots with white hair think I should or shouldn't be able to do with my one and only life.

Your honor was UNDER DURRESSING me with his eyes!

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