The arraignment for Rich Paul, an activist arrested twice at the daily 420 rallies in Keene for marijuana possession (RSA 318-B), took place on 2009-11-02 at 09:00 in Keene District Court.

Rich had been out on personal recognizance bail since his arrests on 2009-09-26 and 2009-10-17, and remains free.

The prosecution has lowered both charges to B misdemeanors, meaning Rich isn’t facing a jail sentence. However, Rich plans to refuse to pay any fines meted out, and per RSA 618:8, will thus be required to serve a jail sentence at the rate of $50/day. The reduction to a B misdemeanor also bars him from requesting a de novo trial in Superior Court in front of a jury, and from requesting a public defender to assist in his defense.

The trial for both charges is scheduled for 2010-02-24 at 10:00.

Eight to ten activists showed up at the arraignment. Thanks to Ian Freeman for providing us with most of the details in this report.

On 2009-09-01, the Keene Police Prosecutor, Eliezer Rivera, sent Cassidy a letter notifying her that they were dropping the charges against her for going topless in Keene as an act of civil disobedience against discriminatory indecent-exposure laws.

In a Keene Sentinel article published on 2009-09-08, the Keene police and prosecutor admitted that they had made a mistake when they charged Cassidy, agreeing that exposing one’s breasts isn’t “gross lewdness.” Keene police officer Lt. Jay U. Duguay explicitly admitted that the Keene Police Department wanted to avoid the possibility of a Supreme Court challenge to the law if Cassidy were convicted and appealed.

We’ll continue following this case and any future similar events that end up leading to charges.

On 2009-08-23, Cassidy Nicosia was arrested in Keene for going topless in public. She was charged with RSA 645:1, “Indecent Exposure and Lewdness.” This was a planned event to promote topless equality, following much discussion (1, 2) on the Free Keene forum, in which several men also went with no shirts. None of the men were arrested.

On 2009-09-01, charges were dropped by the prosecutor.