Victory!!! July 13, 2009 (l-r) Jack Dresser and Gordon Sturrock (both from Eugene), Joe Walsh, Jason Kafoury, Gregory Kafoury, Malcolm Chaddock, & Peter Miller outside the Portland Court House immediatly after Joe's trial.

(l-r) Gordon Sturrock, Joe Walsh, Malcolm Chaddock at the bus stop on the way home.

Navy veteran Joe Walsh from Portland Oregon, also known as "The Lone Vet", had his day in court and was found NOT GUILTY in a stunning peace movement victory over a foreign political influence.

Joe was supported by a dozen or more activist friends and colleagues in Judge Larson's court yesterday and represented by both Jason and Gregory Kafoury.  If you are not sure why you know that name, google it or just take it for granted that you heard the name in connection with multiple millions of dollars awarded his clients over the years in suits both large and well, larger.  The Prosecutor was a game young woman who has certainly got the tenacity to be a good lawyer but didn't seem to quite have it all together this day.

One of the police officers in the room was Kyle Nice, the Portland police officer who was acquitted along with a couple other cops of wrongdoing in the beating death of James Chasse.  Interestingly enough, the wrongful death civil suit was settled for just under a million.    Apparently he wasn't guilty enough to do time but he was guilty enough the City coughed up a  $975 K settlement.   It was hard to sit so close to him and not say something out loud but this was Joe's thing and we didn't want to mess it up.

Without Gordon Sturrock's video of the events there would have been almost no way to have won this case without having to do some really painstaking Q&A lasting several hours involving lots and lots of drawings with x'es and dotted lines and biases.  The video provided an impartial camera eye's view of events that would have been very difficult to establish any other way.  It's doubtful there would have been the same outcome without it.  The video showed Joe walking across the driveway once, twice, being led away in cuffs- and the whole time there is another man in a black suit walking about in the restricted area with complete impunity.  As it turns out, he's important.

Peter Miller, Director of AUPHR, had taken pictures of the mysterious man in a black suit who was photographing all of us and moving at will in the restricted areas the Police were so busily keeping us rabble out of.  Apparently he saw the man at a later event and was able to identify him quite clearly- another example of how the camera can be our friend.   The man in the black suit is Ishmael Khalidi.  Mr Khalidi is noted as being a Bedouin Israeli and an advisor to Avigdor Lieberman, a senior and very hard line Minister in Israel's government.  Mr Khalidi was a speaker at the AIPAC dinner where Joe was arrested, and his arrogance is what got Joe off, in a way.  Khalidi was freely walking in the street, in the bike lane, in the driveway where Joe was getting arrested, taking pictures and/or video.

The Prosecutor could easily have held that Joe was rightly arrested and Khalidi should have been so too, she doesn't know why not BUT Khalidi was not on trial that day.  The Judge might have gone with her on it but she never gave him the opportunity, instead she tried to justify Khalidi's being ignored by the police with several very shaky and unconstitutional arguments. To her credit what she lacked in knowledge and experience she partially made up for with guts, and kept swinging with her weak arguments all the way down.   She presented an untenable set of arguments to the judge and so he decided to rule in favor of Joe, although he believed Joe meant to disobey a lawful order and did. However, the selective nature of the enforcement of the restricted zone was unconstitutional and therefore fatal to the prosecution's case, resulting in a Not Guilty verdict.

The judge ruled that the selective enforcement was "unconstitutional".   Apparently that is a VERY good thing, a ruling that will strongly support a civil lawsuit that, win or fail, could be very revealing.  There is a very strong possibility that all of the following will be named:  AIPAC, The City/PPB, the Mittleman Center and perhaps others as well.  Most will recognize that the players we speak of have very deep pockets and vital interests to protect, especially AIPAC, so the outcome could become very significant for both civil protesters and the Israel lobby.  The suit is expected to be filed within the next year or so.

Thank you all for your support, Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
 

 

Here are videos related to this event, all were posted prior to the Court victory.
 

 

Squadron13's initial video release (an editorial)
criticizing the deadly consequences of AIPAC's influence on American politics.
 
 

Pictures from March 29th

Return to Homepage