Sara Garber and I were hired to represent a group of young social justice activists who were arrested in Peoria, Illinois for allegedly violating the residential picketing statute. The young picketers were concerned that the insurance company, R.L.I., with 950 employees, 30 locations, was unfairly refusing to insure undocumented immigrants released on electronic monitoring. Finding out that the C.E.O. of the company had issued an advisory for employees to work at home due to COVID, they decided to go to his home, understanding that he was now working from home.
Arriving on a work day during normal business hours, the 30 or so picketers stood on the sidewalk or in the street, facing away from the house, holding signs in support of immigrants and chanting peacefully. Nevertheless, the police were called. When they arrived, the police admitted at trial that the picketers were peaceful, polite, not loud and made no threats to the C.E.O. or even approach his home.
When some of the picketers refused to leave, they were given “tickets” and some were arrested. Confident they had done no wrong, four of those detained chose to go to trial. They chose a jury trial because they thought the citizens of Peoria County should hear about this blatant attempt to silence protest.
After a lengthy three hour jury selection process, a jury which seemed fair was chosen. The state put on two police officers to identify our clients. They were unable to adequately do that. The state then put on the CEO of the company who testified, often in contradiction to the police testimony. Perhaps his least credible testimony was when he said that despite having 950 employees, in 30 locations, and having a printer, scanner, computer at home, he never works at home.
At the conclusion of the state’s presentation, Sara Garber successfully argued why three of the four should have their cases dismissed and the Judge agreed. We then made closing arguments. We stressed three points:
The CEO’s home was also, during COVID, a place where he conducted business, making the residential picketing statute inapplicable.
The CEO’s testimony was not credible.
The only reason the fourth defendant was identified by the police officer was because she was the only woman on trial.
The jury was out 20 minutes before rapidly concluding that the state had not proven their case beyond a reasonable doubt and found the remaining defendant Not Guilty.