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Political Convictions? by Brendan Kiley - Seattle News. On Thursday, August 2, at roughly 12:45 p.m., a small woman with long black hair and a red cardigan sweater stood on the lawn of Seattle's federal courthouse, surrounded by a few friends and around 75 protesters. On the steps behind her, a few dozen law-enforcement officers watched as she nervously spoke into a megaphone, announcing that she would not cooperate with the federal grand jury proceedings taking place inside. She said she would go into the courthouse, give the jury only her name and date of birth, and refuse to answer any further questions. "Under no circumstances," she said, speaking for herself and another recipient of a subpoena, "will we talk about other people.

" Refusal to testify before a federal grand jury can result in jail time for contempt of court. (Video journalist Josh Wolf, for example, served seven and a half months in 2006 and 2007 for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury and turn over his footage of a protest in San Francisco.) "We love you, Leah! " Third Northwest activist jailed for staying silent. “Today is October 10th, 2012, and I am ready to go to prison,” announced 24-year-old Leah-Lynn Plante yesterday.

By Thursday morning, the Portland activist was in custody and could remain incarcerated in a U.S. federal prison for 18 months, although she has not been charged with a crime. Along with two others in the Pacific Northwest, Plante was remanded into federal custody for her refusal to provide a grand jury testimony regarding activists in the region. Matt Duran and Kteeo Olejnik were jailed in previous weeks for, like Plante, refusing to cooperate with a grand jury.

All three are now being held in U.S. federal prison, not because they are being punished for crime, but, as the National Lawyers Guild’s executive director Heidi Boghosian told me earlier this year, “to coerce cooperation.” Writing for Truth-Out in August about the Northwest grand juries and those resisting cooperation, I noted that grand juries “are among the blackest boxes in the federal judiciary system.” New York activist faces jail for his silence. During Occupy’s most resonant days in New York in late 2011 and early 2012, regular marches and protests led typically to at least a handful of arrests. Those nights, tired bodies would trickle out of lower Manhattan’s central booking, slapped with minor charges, into the arms of supportive friends and activist allies holding vigil outside. Gerald “Jerry” Koch, now 24, was already an old hand at jail support for activists by that time. His suited, skinny frame haunted court buildings until the early hours following arrests, helping gather bail funds and legal support.

Under Koch’s vigilant, pestering watch, the holding cells filled with political protesters would be emptied as soon as possible. Now Koch — my longtime friend, Jerry — faces up to a year and a half in jail himself. Three of the Northwest grand jury resisters were held in solitary confinement for much of their five-month detainment. Jerry’s case is a particularly strange one. A representative from the New York U.S. Jerry Resists. Fourth Anarchist Jailed for Refusing to Talk Before Grand Jury. A fourth person has been jailed for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury that is targeting anarchists in the Pacific Northwest.

Maddy Pfeiffer self-surrendered to the Seattle, Washington federal detention center on Wednesday, December 26th as ordered by the court. Pfeiffer was accompanied by friends and supporters before being taken into custody. Pfeiffer had previously appeared before the grand jury and asserted 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights in response to every question asked. This is now the fourth person who has been imprisoned for refusing to testify before the grand jury about their political beliefs and political associations. Matt Duran and Katherine Olejnik have been in jail since September, and Leah Plante was released in October. [For background about them: "3 People Now in Jail for Refusing to Talk About Other Anarchists"] It’s unclear how long they may be imprisoned. You can write Pfeiffer a letter here: