by Robert Lederman 8/3/96
Provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
A.R.T.I.S.T. president, Robert Lederman will be the first N.Y.C. street artist to be brought to trial. A new trial date has been set for Monday 9/9/96 Jury Part 1 5th floor 100 Centre Street, Criminal Court Bldg. 9:30 A.M. The previously scheduled trial date of 7/30 was adjourned due to the lack of a judge to hear the case.
The D.A. is David Jaffe. The Judge scheduled to hear the trial is Judge Pickholtz.
Lederman is represented by Marc Agnifilo (212) 768-7833.
Since 1993 the City has made more than 350 artist arrests. So far, not one has come to trial or resulted in a guilty verdict. Lederman will stand trial for Unlicensed General Vending and two Disorderly Conduct charges which carry a three month sentence each. This is an unusual case in that the Disorderly Conduct charges as described by D.A. Jaffe at a preliminary hearing involve nothing more than the defendant handing out literature, holding up a protest sign that read, "Stop Arresting Artists", photographing the police confiscating another artists work and handing out similar protest signs to other artists present. Lederman has been arrested twice before for distributing literature criticizing the City's artist arrest policy and numerous times while displaying his art. Virtually no one has been arrested for handing out a leaflet in N.Y.C. since the World War I Sedition Act.
At the preliminary hearing held on 6/27 D.A. David Jaffe told the presiding judge, "Robert Lederman has been arrested 13 times. If we don't stop him this will only continue. Before being arrested he handed out protest signs to the other artists and they marched up and down."
The judge at the preliminary hearing appeared predisposed to find Lederman guilty. Lederman's defense lawyer was told he couldn't talk about the First Amendment. The judge didn't want the defense to enter numerous photographs taken at the arrest scene as evidence. The judge also denied the defense the right to subpoena witnesses to testify on the vending ordinance or to enter relevant testimony by City officials from the ongoing street artist Federal suit.[Lederman v. City of New York 94 civ. 7216 (MGC)]. That case is presently before the 2nd circuit Federal Appeals Court. The defense has six eyewitnesses to the 5/11 arrest prepared to testify.
Lederman is president of A.R.T.I.S.T. an advocacy group of 200 New York street artists. He has been an outspoken critic of the Mayor's quality of life policies and of City Council Member Kathryn Freed who is behind many of the artist arrests. Observers believe that this trial is an attempt to intimidate and silence Lederman and other artist activists. Recently he and other A.R.T.I.S.T. members distributed a controversial leaflet at the Criminal Court building ("Why Plead Guilty") which advised quality of life violation defendants to not plead guilty or accept any plea bargaining arrangement and to demand a trial. Members of the D.A.'s office, defense lawyers and a number of judges agreed with the viewpoint expressed in the leaflet, causing the Giuliani administration considerable embarrassment.
That no judge was available for this trial on its originally scheduled 7/30 date is simply part of the City's unfair arrest policy. They are completely unprepared to give defendant's a trial and are pressured by the administration to convince every defendant to plead guilty or plea bargain regardless of the circumstances of their arrest or the charges being legitimate.
For more information or to receive a press kit contact A.R.T.I.S.T. (718) 369-2111;E-mail:ARTISTpres@aol.com or visit the A.R.T.I.S.T. web page: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html