DRONE COURT IN NEW YORK

MB and I have arrived in Syracuse, New York for my appearance in DeWitt town court - this evening at 7:00 pm.  This is for my April, 2013 arrest at the local drone base here called Hancock Field.  On that occasion there were 30-some of us arrested at the base that remotely pilots drones over Afghanistan & Pakistan and god knows where else.  This will be my third time before this court.  I am not certain what will happen tonight.

We made the drive out of Maine yesterday in huge traffic as summer tourists were leaving the state in droves.  We used the trip south to map one of the legs of our Walk for Peace & a Sustainable Future planned for October 11-20.  We made it as far as Wayland, Massachusetts where we stayed the night at the home of a family friend.  Then this morning we picked up the trip to Syracuse which took us another five hours.

Our plan is to drive back to Maine in the morning.  More later on the court scene.

Update:  The District Attorney didn't show up in court tonight so nothing got done except the judge ruling on my two motions which I had presented in advance.  One of them was to consolidate all the trials of the 30-some folks arrested with me in 2013.  The judge had previously ruled against that motion not wanting to give us the publicity of a big trial.  So even though a bunch of individual trials is a pain in the ass for this small town court (the drone base is located in DeWitt which is a suburb of Syracuse) they have likely been told by the federal government not to give us such a platform.  Thus DeWitt has the burden of all these individual trials.  Bottom line is I have to come back again in mid-November unless the DA makes me an offer I can't refuse between now and then.  Time will tell.  In the meantime the saga continues of more time and expense to keep coming back to DeWitt.  I should have asked the judge to dismiss the case tonight when the DA didn't show up but I didn't think of doing it until we were heading back to our hotel.  That's what I get for being my own lawyer - a true hay seed I am.