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ADAPT (332)
Arizona Republic Saturday, April 11, 1987 Title: Wheelchair Activists are Released from Jail By J.F. Torrey The Arizona Republic Sixteen wheelchair activists who had blocked city buses and picketed a transportation convention earlier this week were released Friday after three days in jail. The 16 pleaded no contest to a variety of misdemeanor charges, including trespassing and obstructing a public thoroughfare. Phoenix Municipal Judge Michael Lester sentenced the defendants, all members of the Denver-based American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit, to three days in jail. They were credited with the three days they had served and released. Phoenix police made 73 arrests this week of people in wheelchairs who had blocked buses and disrupted meals and meetings held in conjunction with the Western meeting of the American Public transit Association. The 16 released Friday had been arrested Tuesday after they rolled their wheelchairs in front of buses at the downtown Phoenix Transit System terminal and several other bus stops. The group wants all mass-transit buses equipped with lifts for handicapped passengers. A number of those jailed Wednesday had been arrested at the earlier demonstrations, and it is common for people arrested a second time on misdemeanor counts to be jailed, said Sgt. Brad Thiss, a Phoenix police spokesman. The hearing for 14 of the defendants was held in a room at Maricopa County Durango Jail because of the difficulty of transporting the defendants to the Madison Street Jail, where hearings usually are held. Two protesters held at Madison Street were released Friday night. Joe Rossano, a spokesman for the county Sheriff’s Office, said that inmates usually are held at Madison Street but that the group of 14 protesters was brought to Durango so they could be kept together and have more exercise room. “We wanted to keep them all in one spot,” he said. “This is a nice, low stress jail. It’s nice and airy. They had access to a patio, outside. If you have to go to jail, go to Durango.” However one of the defendants, Robert Kafka, 41, said near the end of the hearing that the protesters had filed nine grievances against Durango, alleging improper medical care. “It’s an abomination that this jail accepted handicapped people when they were not able to take care of them,” Kafka said. Earlier in the day, Rossano said that the handicapped inmates had received double mattresses and that those with bedsores had been given sheepskin covers. Kafka said no sheepskin covers were handed out. When the hearing bean, Lester ordered it closed to everyone but court personnel, attorneys and defendants because of the small size of the room. After reporters covering the hearing protested and Lester consulted with M. Louis Levin, the presiding judge of Phoenix Municipal Court, he allowed the press to attend the hearing but barred supporters of the defendants. Ken Skiff, a court-appointed attorney for the defendants, said, ‘I had them all read the police reports and they agreed that they were accurate , and I felt that the sentence would be appropriate because there would be no fine and no probation.” Tom Timmer, a deputy city attorney who prosecuted the case, said he agreed to the plea agreements because “this is the best resolution for all concerned.” Police on Sunday night arrested 29 people in wheelchairs who were blocking entrances to Rustler’s Rooste restaurant at the Pointe at South Mountain. Conventioneers were attending a steak fry at the restaurant. On Monday, five protesters were arrested outside the downtown Hyatt Regency hotel for continually blowing their wheelchairs’ horns. On Tuesday, 39 more arrests were made of protesters who blocked buses at the downtown terminal, at First and Washington streets, and at several other sites, including bus stops at the Capitol and Central Avenue and Van Buren Street.