AUGUSTA — A jury today convicted a protester arrested at the Blaine House last November on a charge of criminal trespass.
Greg Fahy, 44, of Hallowell, a philosophy professor at the University of Maine at Augusta, was the seventh person to be tried on that charge in Kennebec County Superior Court.
The jury deliberated about 20 minutes prior to returning the verdict in the half-day trial today.
The nine people arrested Nov. 27 were protesting an order to end the weeks-long Occupy Augusta encampment at Capitol Park.
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney James Mitchell Jr., said they defied police orders to leave the grounds of the governor’s mansion.
Fahy was the only witness called by defense attorney Walter McKee, and said he did not hear a warning to leave prior to being arrested.
Four police officers testified about seeing dozens of protesters milling around the lawn and shouting from the sidewalk. They said some people left after receiving the warning.
A separate trial of five co-defendants ended Thursday in a mistrial.
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AUGUSTA — Four people whose trial over trespassing at the governor’s mansion ended Thursday in a mistrial returned to the courtroom today to watch another defendant face the same charge.
A different jury in Kennebec County Superior began to hear the case against Gregory Fahy, 44, of Hallowell.
He was one of nine people charged with criminal trespass for allegedly defying police orders to leave the Blaine House grounds during a Nov. 27, 2011, protest involving Occupy Augusta.
Six of those arrested that day were spectators on Friday.
This morning, the prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General James Mitchell Jr., told jurors that the property of the governor’s mansion is a nonpublic forum and not a site for protests.
“When an officer says you have to leave, you have to leave,” Mitchell said.
He said people can exercise their rights to free speech and assembly on the streets and sidewalks and in Capitol Park, a site he likened to People’s Park in front of the White House.
Fahy’s defense attorney, Walter McKee, told jurors that his client is not guilty and was never warned about being arrested if he remained at the Blaine House.
“Greg simply wasn’t told at all he had to leave,” McKee told jurors in his opening statement. “The first he heard about it was when he was under arrest.”
McKee said Fahy had joined people from the nearby Occupy Augusta encampment at Capitol Park to protest an order to end the nighttime camping and to get a permit to use it during the day.
McKee said Fahy thought that was unfair and wanted to show his support for the group that had been at the park since Oct. 15.
The first witness, Capitol Police Officer Paul Lapierre, testified he saw about 30 to 40 people milling on the Blaine House grounds Nov. 27, as well as a woman on the balcony, and some signs that had been hung.
He said there was drumming and the protesters were chanting, “ Who’s house? Our house.”
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