Arrest

At around 03:00 on 2009-09-14, Tyler & Eirene Sanstail, along with another friend of theirs, Deliah, were detained in a park in Manchester for violating the city’s curfew ordinance. Upon running their names, the police discovered that Tyler & Eirene, whose legal names are Timothy & Jennifer Whiteway, had an outstanding warrant for several felony counts from Arizona. They were arrested and their vehicle was impounded and searched, leaving Deliah to rely on Porc411 to find a ride home. (No one was actually cited for violating the park curfew.)

Tyler & Eirene Sanstail are Free State Project participants who moved to New Hampshire a few months ago from Arizona. They were staying in Deerfield at the time of the arrest.

A busy morning

The next morning was jury selection day at Hillsborough Superior Court North, so from 08:00 to 09:00, the growing group of Manchester courtroom activists were busy outside that courthouse handing out FIJA brochures. To make things even more interesting, someone inside the courthouse had noticed that Cassidy had been open carrying, so they predictably called the police, who predictably had to respond by performing an illegal detention just to “make sure” that she wasn’t a felon. I arrived at the Superior Court ten minutes late, right in the middle of this.

After we were all done handing out flyers, several of us took a trip over to the Hillsborough County Jail on Valley Street to find out if Tyler & Eirene were still being held there, or if they’d been transported to court yet for arraignment. The jail said they’d been brought to court, so a smaller group of us went over to the Manchester District in order to observe and report.

Arraignment

Cassidy and I had to leave at 09:30, her for work, and I to attend Ivy’s trial on the same day. By the time the arraignment finally got underway—nearly 11:00—only Mike T., Joe S., and his girlfriend Jennifer remained in the courtroom.

At one point during the arraignment, Mike T. was nearly accosted by the prosecutor for trying to signal to Tyler & Eirene.

Tyler & Eirene were arraigned on multiple felony counts of some sort of child abuse allegations. Mike reported that he didn’t “want to break the news about who was involved or why they were there. It’s going to come out in a few days; a Union Leader reporter was in court and is doing a story on it, and it’s not going to be a good story.”

Tyler & Eirene’s bail was set at $100,000 cash only, and the extradition hearing was scheduled for 2009-10-13 at 08:00. After the arraignment, both of them were returned to jail.

NH-CLOG has minimal involvement in this case, as Tyler & Eirene have decided to hire public defenders. However, since several activists are peripherally connected to this case, or are friends with the Sanstails, we’ve decided to cover it briefly here.