for immediate release (9/11/96):
provided by OPENAIR-MARKET NET
At the 9:30 Monday 9/9 Jury Part 1 5th fl. hearing, the D.A.'s office (A.D.A. Deanna Logan 212 335-9000) made a motion to consolidate all open arrest cases of Lederman's, each of which involve free speech issues. This caused the trial to be delayed for the third time. If the motion is successful it will result in a jury trial rather than the previously scheduled bench trial.
In the three cases [12/17/95, 4/28/96 and 5/11/96] Lederman is charged with Disorderly Conduct, Obstruction of Government Administration and displaying or selling art. Judge William Mogulescu agreed to rule on the consolidation motion on 10/4/96. The judge noted that if the 2nd Circuit Federal Appeals Court issues a favorable ruling by that time, the D.A. would most likely drop the Disorderly and Obstruction charges because such charges imply that the police were acting in a lawful manner when confiscating art and making artist arrests.
In police reports and in statements made by the D.A.'s office Lederman is described as making a speech to onlookers while the police arrested him and other artists; photographing the police destroying art; and distributing leaflets critical of the Mayor, the Police, the D.A's office and City Council Member Kathryn Freed. Additionally, in each case he is alleged to have held up a protest sign and said, "Stop Arresting Artists!".
City Council member for SoHo Kathryn Freed [212 788-7722] continues to justify her demands that the police arrest street artists by telling reporters that Lederman, the groups' leader has been, "...brought downtown to the D.A.'s office and questioned about stalking and harassing women, giving out their phone numbers etc. He's been warned that he'll be prosecuted if he doesn't stop". Reporters following through on this statement find out from the D.A. that the interrogation and warning, "never happened". The phone numbers Freed refers to are her own government office phone number, (advertised in numerous local papers) and the number of the president of the SoHo Alliance, Freed's controversial political action group, who local police claim phones in daily requests for artist arrests. When questioned about what she means by "stalking", Freed admits it involves Lederman and other artists staging protest demonstrations wherever artists are arrested complete with police officers and T.V. crews. A.R.T.I.S.T. has an official policy of demonstrating on the exact spot where arrests take place. Freed repeatedly has also asked local police to arrest Lederman for posting handbills consisting of her own published statements from newspaper articles.
More than 350 artist arrests have been made in N.Y.C. since 1993. Not one case has resulted in a trial or a conviction. The City sells the confiscated art at a monthly Police Department auction. The proceeds are used by the N.Y.P.D..
For more info, photographs of this and other artist arrests or a press kit contact:
A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics); (718) 369-2111 E-mail <ARTISTpres@aol.com>.
A.R.T.I.S.T. web site [an extensive journalistic resource]: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Marc A. Agnifilo, Lederman's defense attorney, 212 768-7833
City Council Member for SoHo Kathryn Freed, 5l Chambers St. 788-7722 fax 788-7727
1st Precinct/SoHo 212-334-0611 Captain Callahan
Lt. Johnson, C.O. Peddler Task Force, 212-760-8305, fax 760-8354 (In charge of all artist arrests)
Robert J. Louttit, Dir. 5th Ave B.I.D., 265-1310 original C.O. peddler squad
- Tom Cusick, Dir. 5th Ave. Association (212) 736-7900
- (Both actively oppose legalizing artist displays)
Lederman is also a plaintiff in a pending first amendment Federal lawsuit, [Lederman v. City of New York 94 civ. 7216 (MGC). The artists are represented by Wayne Cross and Randall Fox of the law firm Dewey Ballantine 212 259-8000.
The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, the ACLU and numerous well-known artists and constitutional right advocates have joined in the case in support of the street artists.
References to this trial, artist arrests, Council Member Freed and related material can be found in the following articles and on the A.R.T.I.S.T. web site: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html
Sun. Daily News 9/8/96 pg. 13, "Law Called Vend-ictive"
New York Times, Sunday July 14, 1996, City section pg 1, lead story); "The War of Nerves Downtown: Kathryn Freed's War of Nerves" [detailed expose of City Council Member Freed];
Art In America, March 1996 pg. 128 "New Allies for Street Artists";
New York Times, Wednesday, January 24, 1996 ,Metro section pg. B1 "Street Art: Free Speech or Just Stuff?";
New York Magazine, January 23, 1995 pg 16 "Among the Artlaws";
N.Y. Post, 5/26/9 pg. 54, "Throwing the Book at Artist";
Christian Science Monitor, Thursday, July 14, 1994 pg. 11 "New York Reins In Street Art";
Christian Science Monitor, Wednesday, February 14, 1996 "Conflict On the Street: Artists v. N.Y.C.";
Time Out Magazine, Feb 21-27 1996 pg. 18 "Peddle Pushers";
N.Y. Times, 9/1/96 City Section pg 1; "The Portrait Artist in an Age of Zero Tolerance; Inside the Quality of Life Wars".