P.O. Box 81, Swarthmore, PA, 19081-- brandywine@juno.com (610) 544-1818

PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14

Trial of "PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14" Yesterday (4/23/07) Ends in Not Guilty verdict  by Phila. Municipal Court Judge
Marsha H. Neifield First Area Trial for Nonviolent Resistance to the War in Iraq

Reporter: "Bob, just how many times have you been arrested for peace actions over the past four decades?"
Bob [Robert M. Smith, staff coordinator of the Brandywine Peace Community]: "Don't know, I know how many times I've been found
Not Guilty and that is once - today [3/23/07] in Philadelphia

The lawyers - Paul Hetznecker (representing seven of the fourteen defendants and as advisory counsel to the six pro se defendants)
and Paul Messing (representing Ron Coburn) argued flawlessly, tenaciously, that First Amendment protected Free Speech and
access to elected officials to "petition for a redress of grievances" cannot be circumscribed simply because the representative's office
in located in a privately owned building.

The "PHILA. DECLARE PEACE 14", arrested on September 25, 2006, as part of the national Declaration of Peace Campaign, and
charged with misdemeanor counts of defiant trespass, criminal trespass, and criminal conspiracy, for their peaceful presence at the
office of then Senator Rick Santorum.  The 14 waited outside the locked Philadelphia office of then Senator Rick Santorum and the
Widener building's main lobby in order to demand Congressional action to end the war in Iraq and stop war funding.  Each of the
charges holds a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

* "...We stand before you as peacemakers, not law breakers, and we ask that you find us Not Guilty" - Beth Friedlan, pro-se defendant

* "...So we very simply tried to reach our elected government representative and let him know that he cannot, or could not,
continue to support an invasion and occupation, a war the majority of the people in this democracy oppose." - Marge Van Cleef, pro-se
defendant


* "...The evidence has shown that we did not go to the Widener Building [place of then Senator Santorum's Phila. office] in order to
trespass nor to break any law, but rather to demonstrate a peaceful response to the war in Iraq.  As citizens we seek redress from the
crime of this war..." - Robert M. Smith, pro-se defendant

* "...I believe that these citizens and this court are all part of the democratic process.  In representing myself, I make no claims to
make a shooled legal argument or to lecture the court, but I do know that laws that serve only other laws or their own stringent letter do
not always serve people.  So I make an argument for the people who move forth in the truth of these times, and for the innocents far
away who have no voice at all..." - Tom Mullian, pro-se defendant

Municipal Court Judge Neifeld, after the prosecution case, dropped  the charge of criminal conspiracy based on insufficient evidence.
Subsequent to the defense arguments and closing statements by Attorneys Hetznecker and Messing and the *closing statements of
pro-se defendants Beth Friedlan, Marge Van Cleef, Sylvia Brandon- Perez, Bob Smith, and Tom Mullian, the judge found all 14 [Beth
Friedlan, Karen Wisniewski, Sylvia Metzler, Mary Jo McArthur, Bernadette Cronin-Geller, Melissa Elliott and Ronald Coburn,
all of Philadelphia; Timothy Chadwick and Robert Daniels, both of Bethlehem; Robin Lasersohn and Thomas Mullian,
both of Media; Robert M. Smith, of Swarthmore; Marjorie Van Cleef, of Bryn Mawr; and Silvia Brandon-Perez, of Tobyhanna, Pa.]
NOT GUILTY!.

Earlier in the day, the Brandywine Peace Community held a rush- hour vigil and support rally for the "Phila. Declare Peace 14" that
encouraged continued opposition and restance to the war. 

Thanks to all who stood with the  "Phila. Declare Peace 14" - inside and outside the court.  A very special words of thanks and appreciation
for all inestimable work of Attorneys Paul Hetznekcker and Paul Messing.

Articles appeared in the Phila. Inquirer and the Delaware County Daily Times.

We continue to Declare Peace!

Opening Statement by pro-se defendant, Robert M. Smith, Phila. Declare Peace 14, and staff coordinator of the Brandywine Peace Community

Judge Marsha Niefeld 

Good morning.  My name is Robert M. Smith.  I am respectfully a pro-se defendant in this case and will be assisted
by Paul Hetznecker, ESQ.  On September 25, 2006, i along with my co-defendants and co-peacemakers, went to the
Widener Building in order to bring the voice of citizens for peace to our elected representatives in Congress.and the
Senate.  We went to the Widener Building because on the Buildings 9th floor at the time was the Phila. office of one of
our Senators at the time, Senator Rick Santorum.  We took to the Widener Building A Declaration of Peace, seeking a
response from Senator Rick Santorum. The Declaration called for: [the demands and provisions]:

- Withdrawal of US troops and all coalition forces from Iraq
- Closure of US military bases
- Support for an Iraqi-led peace process, including a peace conference to shape a post-occupation transition and an
international peacekeeping presence if mandated by this peace process
- Return of Iraqi control over its oil resources and the political and economic life of the nation
- Reparations and reconstruction to address the destruction caused by the US war and thirteen years of sanctions
- Establish a peace dividend for job creation, health care, education, housing, and other vital social needs
- Increased support for US veterans of the Iraq war, and
- No so-called preventive war against Iran or any other nation

In the weeks  prior to the September 25th demonstration of the Declaration of Peace, a Congressional  Declaration of Peace
had been delivered and conveyed to each of our PA Senators and Congresspeople from the Phila. region, including Senator
Rick Santorum.  Congressman Chaka Fattah, from the 2nd Congressional District actually signed the Declaration of
Peace.  Judge Neifeld, we went to Widener Building and the Phila. office of then Senator Santorum, taking in hand the
Declaration of Peace, taking seriously our responsibility for the course of our country, taking seriously our commitment to
peace and our responsibility to raise our voice for peace. We Declared Peace! as people did in casting  their votes against
this war, as people have in demonstrating in increasing numbers across the country, from all walks of life, and around
the world. 

The evidence will show that we did not go to the Widener Buidling in order to trespass nor to break any law, but rather to
demonstrate a peaceful response to the war in Iraq - a war of choice based on a policy of preventive war orchestrated by
fabrication and presidential falsehoods and the manipulation of public opinion.  Stating [that Bush wouldnt listen and] that
Congress would need to act to end the war, the evidence will show that we entered the Widener Building and waited -
peacefully, quietly reading names of Iraq war dead (Iraqi, U.S.),  without obstructing nor interfering with anyone.  We
waited as citizens seeking redress from the crime of this war.  We waited during business hours in the open Widener
building for a  response, a response from then Senator Rick Santorum, a response from the Congress about its responsibility
for the war, for its funding of a war that has now claimed the lives, families, communities of more than 3300 U.S. troops,
nearly 25,000 maimed and wounded, an estimated 650,000 Iraqis dead according to the Lancet British Medical journal,
and has cost more than $400 billion ($8 billion a month). 

Instead of receiving a response from Senator Santorum or any of his office staff in Phila. or Washington, DC, we were
arrested during the business hours of both the Widener Building and the Senators office therein.

In mourning, honor and  memory of Sergeant Sherwood R. Baker, son of Phila's Celeste Zappala, killed three years ago
this Wednesday, April 25, 2004, guarding the search team looking for nonexistent WMD, Inad Mohammad and Anood
Talib, Iraqis killed,  Seth Dvorin of New Jersey,  we continue to declare peace in love of all the victims of this war,
of all those that suffer and die on the altar of war and pay the price of the greed and ambitions of violence. We Declare
Peace to scourge of violence around the world, across our country, and here in our city.

We Declare Peace, we declare respectfully before this court that we are not guilty of any of the offenses with which we are
charged..

God bless you and God bless us all.

  Robert M. Smith