Judge: Speech protest wasn't so bad

CHAPEL HILL -- Michael Bandes, 25, pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge Monday, saying you can't fight UNC-Chapel Hill in its hometown.

Then, a judge dismissed the charges against four fellow protesters and declared a fifth not guilty.

"We didn't really think we'd get a fair trial in Chapel Hill," Bandes said. "I should have stuck it out with my co-defendants."

Monday morning, Bandes and Meredith Dickey, 19, agreed to pay fines and legal costs rather than go to trial on charges that they disrupted former U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode's speech in late April.

Earlier Monday, District Court Judge Joe Buckner threw out senior Haley Koch's disorderly conduct charge. Her attorney, Bob Ekstrand, had argued that holding a banner, singing and chanting did not significantly disrupt former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo's speech, also in April.

Campus police Lt. Lawrence Twiddy said officers arrested Koch alone of 250 protesters because he had identified her through Internet searches for students who had been involved in previous protests against sweatshop labor for Tar Heel apparel.

Monday evening, Buckner said a video showing Donald George Yeo, Sarah Monica Johnson or Rachel Love Harris yelling at Goode was insufficient evidence to try them.

The video showed Jack Wilson Groves unfurl a banner during Goode's speech, but Buckner found that didn't prove Groves' disorderly conduct beyond a reasonable doubt. "You were rude and inappropriate, but the verdict is not guilty," Buckner told Groves.

Buckner said the defendants' obeying police orders to leave the events shielded them from prosecution.

"The event went on," Buckner said.

In the Tancredo case, under cross-examination by Ekstrand, Twiddy testified that Koch complied with his order to leave the classroom as the event began. The judge found Koch "was only responsible for 90 seconds of disruption," Assistant District Attorney Jeff Nieman said.