Hancock Protester Found in Contempt of OOP

BREAKING NEWS: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hancock Protester Mary Anne Grady Flores Convicted of Contempt in Order of Protection Case

Mary Anne Grady-Flores was found guilty by a 6 person Jury in DeWitt Town Court last night  of 2nd Degree Contempt of an Order Of Protection. Grady-Flores, who did not intend to violate the Order despite its immorality and invalidity, was standing in the road in front of the base taking pictures of  the Ash Wednesday Witnesses who were engaged in nonviolent civil resistance which resulted in Disorderly Conduct charges of which they were subsequently acquitted.  She faces up to one year in prison.

In a heinous abuse of an instrument meant to protect the innocent from violence, Orders of Protection are being used to protect violent transgressions of international and moral law from citizen oversight.   While trying to publicize and support a movement to ground the drones and end the wars which take countless innocent lives, Grady-Flores was arrested for noncompliance with an order that does not specify particulars outside of how you might attack another human, something she would never do. Grady-Flores understood the Order to mean that she was forbidden to join the protest.

The Guilty verdict was proffered by a jury 5 minutes after they had asked the judge for a legal definition of “keep away”, and he had replied that they “are the sole triers of fact”.

The two-day trial included testimony from Colonel Earl A. Evans who is the party protected by the OOP, Catholic Priests Father Bill Pickard and Tim Taugher, Catholic Workers Bill Frankel-Streit and Ellen Grady, sister. Grady-Flores also testified herself.

The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars is a Coalition of antiwar organizations in Upstate New York that formed around resistance to the MQ-9 Reaper Drone program at Hancock Base, where they train pilots and technicians with local missions from Fort Drum and fly lethal Reaper missions over Afghanistan.

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