Update from Matt and Maggi Support Committee

March 7, 2011 mattandmaggi.tumblr.com

The Matt and Maggi Support Committee is excited to announce that the
perjury charges against two of our favorite Olympia activists have been
dropped. Matt Duran and Margaret Belknap were arrested at a protest
against police violence that took place last April in Olympia. They were
rounded up with 27 other people (The State Street 29) in a mass arrest.
Several people were singled out for more serious charges including Maggi.
She was charged with an assault of an officer, which translated more
accurately to “assault by an officer” after she was beaten and
pepper-balled while fully complying with the instructions given to her by
the cops.

While they didn’t say it outright, it’s clear that the prosecutor’s
decision to drop the charges was based on their inability to intimidate
our friends, the embarrassing lack of evidence, the public awareness of
this politically-motivated case, and the defense lawyers who schooled
them.

While the charges have been dropped, we still have approximately $2,000 in
legal fees to pay. This means that we are not done. We can never recover
the time or money that was spent fighting these bogus charges, but we can
make alleviate their impact by making sure Matt and Maggi don’t have to
stay in debt. While the situation is no longer as urgent as it used to be,
we all have an obligation to make sure they aren’t left with a fat legal
bill at the end of this,.

We would like to thank the countless donors who have helped us get this
far including those who loaned us money for the initial costs. Your help
has been invaluable and your solidarity sets a great example to others in
our movement. For those (especially in our area) who haven’t donated any
money yet, now is the time to do so!

We are asking that people chip in what they can to help cover this final
bill. If by some miracle, we receive more money than we need, we will send
back what we are able and use the rest to pay for lawyers for those who
have been arrested over the past month in demonstrations against the
police in Seattle.

Our goal is that by April 8th, the one year anniversary of the arrest of
Matt and Maggi, we will have all the money we need to dissolve the
campaign and get back to our organizing work.

People can paypal donations to mattandmaggi[at]hotmail.com. If you would
like to mail a check, cash, or money order, please mail them to:

Alex Bryan
PO Box 1806
Olympia, WA 98507

We prefer checks are made to Alex Bryan since we don’t need to use the
joint account to cash them. If you feel more comfortable, they can be
written to “State Street 29 Support Committee”.

Matt and Maggi have history of community service and activism in Olympia.
On a weekly basis, you can find them volunteering at Media Island, a local
activist networking center and community library located across from the
Olympia Timberland Library. Maggi was a founding member of Port
Militarization Resistance, Olympia SDS, and the Olympia Street Medics. She
has also been extensively involved in EGYHOP, a street outreach
organization. Matt volunteers weekly at the Olympia Food Co-op and has
been organizing copwatches in response to events such as Artswalk prior to
which the Olympia Police Department can be found harassing homeless people
and violating their rights on a daily basis in order to “clean up”
downtown.

At her assault trial, Maggi testified that she didn’t assault the officer
as did Matt, who was a witness to her arrest. The prosecution called the
alleged victim and one other officer to testify. The witness called by the
prosecution, who was standing next to the officer during the arrest
proceedings, said he couldn’t say for sure if an assault had occurred.
Maggi was acquitted of one charge of assault and convicted of the other.

After serving her time in jail, she and Matt were charged with felony
perjury. The charge carries a “suggested sentence” of 6-12 months which is
in the same range as crimes such as child molestation, rape, and
kidnapping.  At this point in time, the Matt and Maggi support committee
was formed to raise the approximately $5,000 in initial legal fees that
they would need. With this money, they vigorously fought the charges.
Meanwhile, we ran a campaign to get people to call the Thurston County
Prosecutor’s Office and raise public awareness about this attempt to
persecute two effective activists.

You can find out more about the case at http://mattandmaggi.tumblr.com
Contact: mattandmaggi{at}hotmail.com.