Support Marie Mason

Greetings,

As the new Defiant Spirit gets ready to roll off the press, the latest
news of our friend and fellow worker Marie Mason is below. Earlier this
week the FBI raided and arrested Marie at her Cincinnati home. There
are updates at www.midwestgreenscare.org Please consider sending Marie
a letter. It would really help.

In Solidarity,

Tom Kappas
CST - General Defense Committee

First we want to thank everyone who has expressed interest in
supporting recently arrested Eco defense organizer Marie Mason. Below
you will find the an overview of what we know as well as the latest
updates about Marie’s case and current situation and ways you can help
support Marie. A listserv has been established to keep supporters
updated. To subscribe send an email to: freemarie-subscribe@lists.
riseup.net Send Marie your letters of support! MARIE MASON #134001
Butler County Sheriff’s Office & Correctional Complex 705 Hanover
Street Hamilton, Ohio 45011 If you send Marie a letter and it gets
returned to you, please let us know about it so we can add any other
restrictions to the guideline list. When writing please use your common
sense; don’t write about anything that is likely to get a prisoner in
trouble in any way. Avoid discussing any details of her case and/or any
potential charges against her.

We were able to briefly speak with Marie Monday night (3/10/08) and
that is when we found out she was in the Butler County Jail and was
promptly placed on suicide watch on arrival. We were able to assure her
that her daughter was safe (her 16 year daughter was at Marie’s home
when the FBI, Homeland Security, and local Police served a search
warrant and detained her for over an hour), that her pets were being
looked after and several other personal affairs would be attended to.
Several of us drove to the Butler County jail the next day (3/10/08)
with the intention of putting money in Marie’s commissary account.

To make things more difficult the prisoner must add visitors names to
a pre-approval list prior to the visit and prisoners are only able to
update their visitors list once every 30 days. We quickly wrote Marie a
letter detailing all this and that we had deposited funds into her
commissary account as well as a list of friends #s she can call collect
at any time and dropped it off at the post office a few blocks from the
jail in hopes she would get the letter before visiting day. We got a
call from Marie’s Mother (3/12/08) today who had received a collect
call from Marie. Marie told her that she needed funds to obtain vegan
food as well socks and basic toiletries in prison. She asked her mother
to contact us to and request we put money in her jail commissary
account. This news was frustrating to us as we had already driven up to
the Butler County Jail and deposited ample money in her account and was
told she would be given a receipt of its deposit detailing her current
balance and she would have access to it by 3pm of the day of deposit.
Since we have not heard from her since Monday we assume she has not
gotten our letter with all the contacts yet and that as of 2pm today
had not been given access to the funds we placed in her commissary
account. The last thing we want is Marie to feel alone during all this.
We will be driving up to the Butler County jail tomorrow in hopes of
seeing her and at the least depositing more money into her commissary
account. We will keep everyone posted. How you can help:

1. We are currently collecting funds for Marie’s legal defense. One
lawyer told us it will likely cost between $20,000 - $60,000 to
represent a case like this. Its important we begin our fund raising
immediately. We are in the process of setting up a website (freemarie.
org coming soon) where folks will be able to use PayPal to donate
direct but until then ask folks to send funds in the form of a check or
money order made out to “Books for Prisoners”. Please put in the notes
section Marie and/or include a letter detailing that the enclosed funds
are for Marie Masons defense. We are grateful to have been contacted by
an anonymous donor who will match dollar for dollar up to $1000 for
Marie’s legal defense fund. This offer is good up until April 15.
2.We are looking for artists who are willing to donate their talent
and time to the cause.
3. Write Marie! Mail will be a life line for her during these
troubling times.

Its all about the Struggle, Got Your Back

Friends of Marie Mason P.O. Box 19065 Cincinnati, OH 45219
freemarie@riseup.net