Lawyer and FOIA advocate arrested at Bar Affiliation conference, accused of soliciting petition signatures

An lawyer and chief in a marketing campaign to guard entry to public info was handcuffed and escorted out of the Arkansas Bar Affiliation‘s annual conference in Scorching Springs Friday in a weird spectacle that unfolded in a room stuffed with attorneys and judges.

Scorching Springs cops cuffed Jennifer Standerfer and informed her she needed to depart the Scorching Springs Conference Middle or face arrest as a result of she was carrying along with her petitions for a pair of poll measures she’s attempting to get on the November poll. The two proposals are supposed to work in tandem to guard the Arkansas Freedom of Info Act, the state legislation guaranteeing Arkansans the proper to entry authorities paperwork. They’re being pushed by a coalition of left, right and center that shaped to protect the FOIA final fall after Gov. Sarah Sanders and her allies within the Legislature plotted to weaken the law.  

Police and conference heart officers mentioned Standerfer violated a rule in opposition to soliciting; Standerfer mentioned she merely had the petitions along with her in case anybody needed to signal, however was not asking for signatures. It’s normal for judicial candidates to put on marketing campaign buttons and T-shirts and hand out push playing cards at these conventions, she mentioned. No drawback there. Carrying petitions, although, acquired her handcuffed in entrance of her colleagues.

“That is the one time I’ve ever been arrested. I don’t plan to do it once more,” Standerfer mentioned Friday afternoon.

Whereas officers stopped in need of charging her with felony trespassing, Standerfer and others are left with questions on who referred to as within the police, and why. 

“It was insanely bizarre. I’m shocked,” mentioned lawyer and state Rep. Ashley Hudson (D-Little Rock), who was on the conference, too.

The primary signal of bother

Standerfer mentioned that whereas she stored petitions along with her all through her time on the conference, she didn’t ask folks to signal them. She needed to have them useful, although, since conference attendees got here from throughout the state.

Standerfer was wheeling petitions round along with her in a black canvas wagon Thursday afternoon when she was first approached by legislation enforcement. Round 3 p.m., Sgt. Patrick Langley from the Scorching Springs Police Division informed her to depart the conference heart as a result of her petitions weren’t allowed, Standerfer mentioned.

She informed Langley that this was a First Modification difficulty that might be simply defined, and requested who she wanted to speak with to get issues cleared up. Langley gave her the names of three folks he mentioned had requested police to have Standerfer eliminated. They had been Scorching Springs Conference Middle staff Jennifer Wolcott and Pauline Howard, and Kristin Frye, director of operations for the Arkansas Bar Affiliation. 

On Friday morning, Standerfer mentioned she acquired a voicemail from Wolcott, director of operations for the Scorching Springs Conference Middle, letting her know the wagon and petitions wouldn’t be allowed again within the constructing. The message appeared to Standerfer like a double normal.

“The conference heart has by no means prohibited political speech on the bar conferences,” she mentioned. Even this week, she mentioned judicial candidates had been passing out stickers and different marketing campaign supplies. “That occurs on a regular basis,” she mentioned.

Standerfer got here to take part in a Friday morning session with out the wagon, however with 4 clipboards of petitions in hand in case anybody needed to signal. She set them down on a desk however mentioned she didn’t speak about them or draw consideration to them. 

Then, the cops arrived. 

Hudson was not within the room the place the convention session was going down however noticed officers gathering outdoors the door. “I watched three cops present up. Three absolutely armed cops standing outdoors the door,” Hudson mentioned. Hudson texted Standerfer to let her know police had been outdoors.

An officer got here within the room and waited till somebody signed one of many petitions on the desk.

“As soon as somebody signed my petition, that was soliciting and I used to be in violation of their coverage. He mentioned I used to be being arrested and put me in cuffs,” Standerfer mentioned.

As soon as they’d gotten out to the foyer, confusion set in, Standerfer mentioned. Sgt. Langley wasn’t among the many unique crew of cops who got here to confront her Friday morning, however he arrived as they walked Standerfer out of the constructing. Langley reiterated that folks from each the conference heart and the Arkansas Bar Affiliation had complained, Standerfer mentioned.

“They initially informed me I used to be being arrested for felony trespass,” she mentioned. However the Scorching Springs Conference Middle is seemingly a public constructing, owned by town of Scorching Springs, and Standerfer had paid to be there for the convention. 

After some dialogue, the officers determined to let Standerfer go, so long as she agreed to depart the property and take her petitions along with her. They informed her she couldn’t stand on the sidewalk out entrance along with her petitions, however must cross to the opposite facet of the road. 

A Freedom of Info Act request to the Scorching Springs Police Division for details about the incident was not instantly fulfilled Friday afternoon; by legislation, the division has three enterprise days to reply. A message left with their media relations officer Friday afternoon was not instantly returned.

This isn’t the primary time in latest weeks that canvassers for a poll measure drew surprising resistance from native police. People collecting signatures for a proposal that would restore abortion access in Arkansas had been threatened with arrest on public property at an occasion held by a state company on Could 30 in Little Rock. In response to a minimum of one officer with the Little Rock Police Division on the scene, the order to stop signature-gathering got here from the governor herself. 

Various accounts

On Friday night, there have been nonetheless loads of questions on who referred to as the cops on citizen Standerfer, and why. 

“After I speak to the Bar, they are saying, ‘No, we don’t have a place [regarding petitions at the convention],’” Standerfer mentioned. “OK, however the cops preserve going round saying you referred to as them.”

An announcement despatched out by the Arkansas Bar Affiliation shortly earlier than 6 p.m. Friday leaves a few of that thriller intact:

“We’re conscious of an incident that occurred throughout our Annual Assembly on the Scorching Springs Conference Middle (HSCC) wherein an attendee was faraway from the premises. Nobody who was approved to talk on behalf of the Arkansas Bar Affiliation requested the HSCC to take away the attendee. The HSCC has a coverage in opposition to soliciting together with petitioning. The Affiliation’s management crew and the Affiliation’s govt director suggested the attendee of the existence of the HSCC’s coverage. The Affiliation supplied the attendee with contact info for the HSCC workers. The attendee had a gathering with a consultant of the HSCC previous to her removing from the premises.”

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, the group Standerfer is working with to enshrine the Freedom of Info Act into the state structure, additionally put out an announcement Friday. 

“At the moment certainly one of our poll query committee members Jennifer Waymack Standerfer was arrested for trespassing whereas attending an Arkansas Bar Affiliation assembly in Scorching Springs on public property. Political speech happens often at this assembly and placement. Though Standerfer had registered for and paid to attend this occasion, she was requested to depart and arrested for carrying the Arkansas Authorities Disclosure Act and Modification petitions.

After the arrest, she was barred from the occasion and denied the proper to gather signatures outdoors of the occasion on the sidewalk.

Whereas Arkansas Residents for Transparency strongly helps the rule of legislation, this safety should additionally prolong to Standerfer’s constitutional proper to advocate for the First Modification.

ACT will proceed to battle for Arkansans’ proper to know.”

Arkansas Residents for Transparency lawyer John Tull nonetheless had loads of questions in regards to the incident. Why doesn’t the Scorching Springs Conference Middle submit their rule in opposition to soliciting on their web site? And does simply carrying one thing round with you represent solicitation?

“It’s a public discussion board she had a proper to be at. She was registered as an attendee. I don’t see how carrying a petition – any greater than sporting a T-shirt, any greater than sporting a button supporting a specific judicial candidate – is totally different,” he mentioned. “Carrying a petition is disallowed, however that’s allowed?”

Then there’s the query of whether or not political speech falls underneath the solicitation umbrella.

“Petitioning qualifies as speech, and speech is protected. There was no solicitation. And even when there was solicitation, there isn’t a posted coverage.” 

Sending a number of officers to the scene appeared extreme, Tull mentioned. “I’m very involved by the response of the Bar Affiliation, in addition to the Scorching Springs Police Division.”

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