On Wednesday, 2010-02-03 Mike was released from jail on personal recognizance. The judge in the case finally looked at the motion filings at around noon on the same day, and order Mike’s release shortly thereafter.

After the usual bureaucratic snafus and paperwork shuffling, Mike was released around 18:00.

On 2010-02-01, activists and friends of Big Mike filed two motions in Manchester District Court in an attempt to have his $5000 cash bail converted to personal recognizance. One motion stated that Mike has identified himself and been processed completely by the jail, which was the stipulation the judge had placed on Mike’s case in order for him to be bailed. The other motion was a request by Mike for a jury trial.

Considering the run-around we had during the arraignment, and dealing with the jail over the past two weeks, this went surprisingly quickly. We arrived at the court around 08:15 and were done within an hour.

We expect that the motions will be taken up and ruled on today; if the judge grants the motion, Mike should be released immediately. Hopefully there will be no need for a hearing, as the motions provide everything the judge required in order to amend bail. We’ll post an update as soon as we find out if Mike has been released.

On Saturday, 2010-01-16, two activists, Mike “Big Mike” T. and Brian M., were arrested at a marijuana-legalization rally in Manchester. Mike refused to coöperate with the police, not even giving them his full name, so he was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail on Valley Street in Manchester to await an arraignment as a “John Doe” on Tuesday, 2010-01-19. Brian was bailed out on $500 cash bond shortly after his arrest.

Mike is charged with “assault” on a police officer for brushing up against one of the cops at the rally.

The arraignment took place at 08:00 and was attended by about two dozen activists and friends. As is typical in the court bureaucracy, no one could tell us precisely when the arraignment could take place, and we waited all morning for Mike’s arraignment in one courtroom, went to lunch, and then returned for the afternoon session only to find out Mike was arraigned as an “overflow” in a different courtroom—first thing when the court opened that morning.

Since Mike refused to identify himself, the judge, William H. Lyons, set his bail at $5000 cash, with the caveat that if Mike is identified by the jail and processed completely, he would be released on personal recognizance to await trial. Mike is currently sitting in Valley Street jail completely incommunicado with the outside world.

More coverage can be found at 420at420.org, a site set up to document the 420 rallies happening around New Hampshire.

At around 03:00 on 2009-09-14, Tyler & Eirene Sanstail, two Free State Project participants, were arrested in a Manchester park for an outstanding warrant for several felony counts from Arizona. They were arrested and their vehicle was impounded.

The arraignment was held the next morning at 09:00, but didn’t get underway until 11:00. Several Manchester courtroom activists attended to observe and report. 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.