DENVER—Art student and freelance photographer Chase Goll sat in the crowded hallway outside a courtroom Thursday, upset at facing seven charges after being swept in a mass arrest during the Democratic National Convention in August.
One charge in particular stood out: Begging.
“I know I’m an art student and everything but I wasn’t begging,” said Goll, who was arrested Aug. 25 near 15th Street and Court while photographing a political illustration project for school. “I have every legal right to shoot photographs while on the sidewalk.”
Twenty-seven people arrested that night were in Denver Municipal Court Thursday morning, with attorneys requesting trials and demanding prosecutors turn over evidence to support their charges.
Attorneys say there are hundreds of individual clips of surveillance video showing their clients that night.
During afternoon hearings, about 35 asked for jury trials and five or six indicated the would plead guilty.
More than 150 people were arrested in Denver between Aug. 23 and Aug. 28 in disturbances related to the convention. About half have resolved their cases by pleading guilty, prosecutors have said.
At the Republican National Convention, more than 800 people were arrested Sept. 1-4 in St. Paul. Officers in riot gear used tear gas, pepper spray and percussion grenades to control protesters. Some observers have questioned the use of force and criticized police for arresting journalists and legal observers.
Brian Vicente of the People’s Law Project, which is helping provide free attorneys to the protesters, said they’re calling for prosecutors to drop the charges.
Attorney David Beller, who represents one of the people arrested, said prosecutors told him a technical glitch prevented prosecutors from making copies of the video. A message left for Assistant City Attorney Vincent Anthony DiCroce, section director for prosecution and code enforcement, was not immediately returned.
Judge Kathleen Bowers, who retired in 2006 but came back to help with the DNC arrests and trial, gave the City Attorney’s office until Oct. 17 to turn over its evidence, with trials to begin the following week.
“The problem is there are no specifics to each individual. They want to charge everybody for the conduct of the mass,” Beller said of the prosecution’s cases so far.
Most of those arrested face up to a year in jail and a $100 fine if convicted of charges that include obstruction of a street and failure to obey a lawful order.
Goll said he was at the intersection with friend and photography model Eli Hardy for his class project when police moved in and corralled a group they were in and forced them off a sidewalk and into the street. Goll and Hardy said they complied with police orders, including sitting down and showing their IDs, but never heard an order to disperse.
In Goll’s summons, police accuse him of throwing rocks/missiles, obstructing a street, disturbing a lawful assembly and disobeying a lawful order. Charges filed by prosecutors were different.
He was charged with two counts of interference with police authority, loitering, trespass, disturbing the peace, destruction of city property and begging.
“I don’t know what any of these charges are all about,” said Goll, 24, a student at The Art Institute of Colorado. “I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
