May 19, 2010
For Immediate Release
Contact: C. Drew (day) 773/561-7676
(Evening) 773/973-1863
e-mail: umcac@art-teez.org
Judge Sends Artist to Trial on
Felony From Selling Art for $1
Screen Print Artist, C. Drew is presently being prosecuted on a 1st class felony charge for audio-recording his own arrest while testing Chicago's misdemeanor peddlers license law. His lawyer, Mark Weinberg, made his oral arguments to accompany Mr Drew's Motion for Dismissal Tuesday, 5/18/10 focusing on the constitutional issues relating to this case that has broad implications for everyone with a cell phone in the future.
Judge Stanley Sacks stated, “I'm no pioneer...” after hearing oral arguments from Mark Weinberg and Lea Ann Fracasso, Law Clerk for the State's Attorney's Office. The Judge dismissed the Motion to Dismiss clearing the way for a full trial under the present Illinois eavesdropping statute for 1st class felony eavesdropping with a minimum 4-15 year sentence. The next court date will be June 18th.
The debate is over the underdeveloped body of case law that sets precedence for your right to gather information in public on how your public servants are serving the public (you) especially at the time of arrest or contact with police. The way this decision goes will either allow bloggers and others to gather and use audio recordings taken in the public of public servants at work or make bloggers or whistle blowers criminals for recording the public conversations of public servants without everyone's prior consent in public in Illinois and other states with two party consent eavesdropping laws.
Granted, Illinois eavesdropping law is extreme among the twelve extreme States which have a double-party consent rule. Still, this case is important because the First Amendment case law around audio recording police officers on duty in public without their knowledge is so underdeveloped and the availability of cell phones to make this issue of growing importance is increasing. The issue of the publics use of cell phone technology to report on and to protect themselves from abuse by public officials in public can not be ignored!
This historic legal battle will continue until precedence is established on this issue that will greatly influence the limits of personal technology and the freedoms we enjoy. When the people's ability to gather information on how the police treat them in public is limited, their ability to protect themselves from and correct errant behavior by police is also limited. Does this ring a bell?
Mr. Drew has served as the Executive Director of the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center for over 20 years. His life long goal has been to create opportunities for artists. He began on his 59th birthday to test the constitutionality of the peddlers license law with the long range goal to create art scenes around the City of Chicago like those found in other cities where freedom flourishes but found quickly that those in control of Chicago do not want artists to explore their free speech rights in Chicago. No wonder we don't see artists creating and selling art in public in Chicago.
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