MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – The rights of Americans to protest their government are in question these days. They were also in question on this day in 1984.
A group called the “Winooski 44” were on trial for illegally occupying the Vermont offices of Senator Robert Stafford.
WCAX’s Michael Gilhooley covered the case. Here is a snippet from the transcription of his report: “Prosecutor Kevin Bradley had painted the trial as a simple trespassing case brushing aside the protesters arguments that they answered to a higher law. The protesters raised the necessity defense, saying that in order to end the wars in Central America, they had no other recourse than occupying Stafford’s office. In the end, the jury believed the necessity defense and not the prosecutors.“
All 44 defendants were acquitted.
