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BY TIM JOHNSON
CONVI TED,
citizenship and who use the tools and freedoms
granted each of us to express a higher civic
purpose.
According to a jury of her peers, lifelong peace
activist Mary Ellen Murphy broke the law last October
when she used Congressman Rick Larsen’s
offi ce to speak out against the U.S. occupation in
Iraq. Yet the judge who sentenced her ruled for
leniency, expressing an appreciation of the important
distinction between criminal offenses
and peaceful civil action.
“What we do in this room does have consequences,”
Bellingham Municipal Court Judge
Debra Lev argued, suspending Murphy’s sentence
of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fi ne for criminal
trespass in the fi rst degree. “What we do here is
connected to the real world.”
Lev did rule Murphy, 70, must serve 40 hours of
community service and pay $43 in court costs for
failing to leave the hallway outside Congressman
Rick Larsen’s offi ce in Bellingham when instructed
to last October.
Murphy’s attorney, Joe Pemberton, hailed the
ruling as a victory.
“In the end, Ellen got her day in court. She
PARD NED
ACTIVIST’S VOICE IS HEARD IN COURT
It’s said we measure a society by how it treats the least of its citizens.
But we also might measure society by how it treats the best of its citizens: Not the
best dressed or best looking, but those who best employ the values of
got her chance to put her feelings on the record,
and was heard and acknowledged by the
judge,” he said
On October 13, Murphy stood with others outside
the hall of Larsen’s offi ce and quietly read
from a list of U.S. service personnel killed in Iraq.
Their purpose was to draw attention to the occupation
in Iraq and ask the congressman why he
continues to support that occupation.
Larsen’s offi ce is in the old Federal Building on
Magnolia Street, a public building now owned by
the City of Bellingham, which leases the offi ce to
Larsen. Larsen himself was not in the offi ce, but
was in session in D.C.
Murphy said her purpose was to impress upon
her elected representative his need to reconsider
his position on the war in Iraq. The action was
only a gesture, she says; she knew Larsen was
not present.
“It’s the only thing we’ve got, this offi ce, our
only access to congressional representation in
Washington, D.C.,” Murphy explained.
Larsen’s staff, preparing to close the offi ce for
the day, telephoned Bellingham Police for assistance
with the protestors. Police arrived and—af-
ter consulting with Larsen’s community representative,
Luke Loeffl er—selected several activists
and issued an order to trespass from the building,
according to police reports.
Charges were later dropped against two of the
trespassed activists who’d had no prior run-ins
with the law. Murphy, noted for her years of
peace activism and civil disobedience, was not
as lucky. The City chose to prosecute her. She
ended up in front of a jury last week.
“Murphy refused to leave Congressman Larsen’s
Bellingham offi ce at the close of business,” Larsen’s
communications director, Amanda Mahnke,
confi rmed. “Our staff contacted the Bellingham
Police Department.” Larsen himself has refused
to comment on the incident.
“This case raises interesting questions about
the nature of trespass, especially as it concerns
citizens’ access to their elected representatives,”
Pemberton observed. “Is it a crime to attempt to
communicate with one’s congressman?”
In pre-trial hearings, Lev disagreed with Pemberton
and limited the scope of his arguments.
Murphy, Lev ruled, would not be allowed to reference
her contitutional rights of free speech and