Contact: Kortney Blythe, Director of Campus Life Tours (CLT), Survivors, 704-778-2702, campus@survivors.la
CYPRESS, Calif., Feb. 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- On February 21, 2008, Cypress College in California once again unlawfully arrested pro-life activists for being outside the school's "free speech zone."
From the time of their arrival on campus, members of the pro-life group Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust quietly held signs, distributed literature and dialogued with students about abortion, but because they refused to be confined to an area, they were arrested for failing to leave private property not open to the general public (trespassing).
"How educated police officers and college administration can claim that a public school is private property is beyond me. Then they make a mockery of free speech by providing inadequate 'zones' in which they allow First Amendment rights to occur." says Kortney Blythe, Director of Campus Life Tours (CLT) for Survivors.
Out of the two "free speech zones" offered, one consisted of two 3'x 6' rectangles labeled "free speech", while the other measured 10' x 20' and was a lowered area behind concrete tables and off the pedestrian path.
One year ago Blythe and her team were arrested for the same charge – criminal trespass, in violation of Penal Code § 602. After careful review of the facts and the pertinent law, the Orange County District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges against the Survivors. The presiding judge went one step further and declared the team "factually innocent" and ordered that the record of the arrest be erased from the Department of Justice criminal records database. A civil lawsuit is currently pending against Cypress College for the 2007 arrest.
"While I am pleased that the Orange County D.A.'s Office dismissed the illegitimate criminal charges it initially filed against the Survivors in 2007, we must do something to prevent College Administrators and Officials from blatantly violating the Constitutional rights of young people on public school campuses simply because the administration disagrees with the message these young people speak," says Life Legal Defense Foundation attorney Allison Aranda.
Mrs. Aranda is hopeful that the District Attorney's Office will see the truth about what transpired on the Cypress College campus in 2008 before it files formal charges against the team.
"It is clear from the facts of both cases that the sole objective of the Cypress College administration is to silence the pro-life message being shared on their campus. Unless we take a stand against such deliberate and intentional persecution, college administrators will continue to misuse and abuse the legal process by having citizens like the Survivors falsely arrested, removed from their campuses, and silenced from speaking the truth," says Mrs. Aranda.
After privately speaking with college administration for over an hour, Officer Kozakowski placed Blythe in cuffs, followed by Crystal Golden, Rolland Beireis, James Conrad, and Ashley Colantuono.
During the arrest, the three females were indecently frisked. "Officer Kozakowski not only unnecessarily groped me in inappropriate areas, but did this in front of numerous students," says CLT team member Ashley Colantuono.
For an hour the team members sat in the back of three squad cars while officers confiscated their signs, cameras and literature bins. During this time the officers searched their penal code database to determine the charges, finally settling on 602(k). "You know it's an unlawful arrest when the officers don't know what they're arresting for and say things like, 'that one will work'. Last time they charged us with 602(o), but they knew that didn't stick so they changed it to 602(k)," says Blythe.
The team's attorney, Mrs. Aranda, is currently working to get their unlawfully seized possessions returned.
Blythe concludes, "Not only is this the third time this school and police department has unlawfully arrested members of Survivors, but apparently it takes eight police officers, four squad cars, two police vans and a truck on the scene to respond to peaceful citizens exercising their rights."
