Arrested for standing silently in the back of a public meeting, Alma Hasse refused to cooperate with booking or to eat, instead helping prisoners with grievances. After a week, the Payette County, Idaho jail ejected her on her own recognizance with no bail. She says they still plan to charge her with something. Meanwhile, she’s back to filing open records requests, presumably about the Planning and Zoning Commission that had her arrested and that has a record of not divulging information even in response to FOIA requests. I smell a lawsuit, and not by P&Z. Maybe they should have gone to the VDT’s Open Government Symposium in Macon Friday. Maybe some of our local elected and appointed officials have learned that this isn’t the answer:

So it’s just if you disagree you’re disruptive.

Alma Hasse’s husband Jim wrote on her facebook page 16 October 2014, Alma is FREE!!!! PLEASE SHARE!!,

The Payette County Jail released Alma! No Bail!

While she was in jail she was working on helping female prisoners with their grievances against the jail.

The first thing Alma did when she was released was to pull a public records request for a project she was working on before she was unjustly incarcerated. Then she had her first meal after seven days refusing all food.

Here she is with our granddaughter Ava after she was released.

Go Alma!!!!

Alma Hasse followed up on her facebook page 16 October 2014, Hello Dear Friends and Fellow Fractivists!

Yes, It’s true, I’m FREE!!! Had to stop on the way back to the farm and eat— I was pretty hungry!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughts and prayers! Honestly, it was each and every one of YOU who made it possible for me to stand strong. I feel fine— not quite up to running a marathon yet, but think I’ll be back to 100% in a day or so.

No, this is NOT the end of the legal battle. I was released OR (on my own recognizance). Honestly, I had no choice as they escorted me to the door so to speak. I would rather still be there protesting the complete disregard of the civil rights of ALL of our fellow citizens. I think the pressure YOU all exerted and YOUR blasting my situation around the GLOBE may have had a lot to do with their decision…

The County of Payette is still moving forward with my “prosecution”. In the end, I hope to have a ginormous lawsuit against Payette County. The level of corruption and collusion in this county knows no bounds!

I’m looking forward to a GOOD nights sleep in MY bed, and in the meantime, I’ve got some close friends, here for a small celebration!

Back soon with some more information….

Here’s the Payette Police incident report, which lists charges of Criminal Trespass, subclass Trespassing, Government Property, as well as Resisting and Obstructing Officers, subclass Obstructing Police, Other. You can see the video of her being arrested. Does it look to you like she’s resisting arrest or obstructing officers?

While Alma Hasse was in jail, her daughter Shavone Hasse and others attended an oil and gas lease auction in Boise and were told they couldn’t hold signs in an area clearly marked Protest Area. Blair Koch wrote for Enviro News Idaho 17 October 2014, Fish & Game Cop Tries to Gag Fracking Activists and is Shut Down by Boise PD, with video, in which you can hear telling Shavone Hasse to leave because she was speaking before the public meeting started, and “this is our building”. At a building of the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL), which, silly me, I would have thought was owned by the people of Idaho.

The video includes this gem by Shavone Hasse:

These guys are being pretty loud now, and none of them are disruptive.

So it’s just if you disagree you’re disruptive.

When the Boise Police finally showed up, they listened patiently to the situation. Including to Shavone Hasse, whose shirt read “Free Alma Hasse”, who proposed to video silently from the back of the room. When asked by police if that was OK, IDL stuttered and said yes. The video enda as the auction startes, with another protester holding up a protest sign behind the bidders.

The day after she was home, Alma Hasse posted a link to Betsy’s post in The Spokesman-Review’s Eye On Boise 17 October 2014, Anti-fracking activist released from Payette jail after refusing to go through booking process for a week,

Once taken to the jail, “The officer gave her the opportunity to be cited and released if she would provide the information that was needed,” said Payette Sheriff’s Capt. Toby Hauntz. “She refused to do that. The jail deputies that were trying to book her let know that if she went through the booking process, they would just issue her a citation and release her.”

Instead, Hasse remained in the jail for seven days, during which time she went on a hunger strike and refused all meals. She appeared before a judge last Friday morning but refused to provide information on arraignment to the judge as well; that was repeated on Tuesday. At that point, the judge issued a $10,000 bond “because she wouldn’t answer his questions and complete the booking process,” Hauntz said.

“I finally went to her on Wednesday and just told her we’ve got to get this done, the judge had told us we need to get the booking process completed,” the sheriff’s captain said. “She finally started talking to me and within five minutes we got everything taken care of.” Going through the booking process, by state law, requires fingerprinting and a photograph, along with providing identifying information; Payette County requires a full name, date of birth, and medical questionnaire. State law, in Idaho Code Section 20-601, says, “Any person who refuses to submit to the entire booking process will be held in the county jail until the process is completed, or until ordered to be released by a magistrate or district judge.”

Hauntz said Hasse went back before a judge on Thursday who released the bond and agreed to release her on her own recognizance; she has a court date in November and a jury trial set for December. “We knew who she was, she had no prior criminal history,” Hauntz said. “Not even 30 minutes after she went to court and the judge reduced the bond, we had her out of custody.”

The Idaho ACLU points out the jail could have booked her as a Jane Doe, but chose not to do that. Idaho ACLU is looking into the case.

-jsq

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