Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 16:59:56 -0400 From: Michael Novick Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 1:26 PM http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/08/10/city/PTIMONEY10.htm Trial is set in Timoney scuffle Three men face felony charges for the melee in which the commissioner was struck by a bicycle. By Linda Loyd and Monica Yant Kinney INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS On the same day that leaders of last week's protests of the Republican National Convention assailed authorities for what they called their unforgiving stance toward the demonstrators, a Philadelphia judge yesterday ordered the three men who last week tussled with Police Commissioner John F. Timoney and two officers at the height of the protests to stand trial on several felony charges. During yesterday's Municipal Court preliminary hearing for the three defendants, Timoney took the witness stand and identified the suspects, then described the role of each man during the confrontation near Rittenhouse Square. "This was a melee, an effort to free the prisoners," Timoney said of the Aug. 1 brawl in the 200 block of South 17th Street. Timoney, who was patrolling on a bicycle near Rittenhouse Square, said he and two bike officers were trying to calm protesters who he said were trying to overturn a car on 17th Street. Defendant Eric Steinberg, 22, charged at police with his bicycle raised over his head, Timoney said, "as if he was trying to break up the skirmish" and prevent the arrests. Looking across the courtroom, packed with friends and family of the defendants, Timoney identified Camilo Viveiros, 29, of Somerset, Mass., as the protester who threw a police bicycle that struck Timoney in the back and Officer Raymond Felder in the neck and head. Felder suffered a concussion and has not returned to work, Assistant District Attorney Richard Negrin told the judge. Timoney named a third defendant, Darby Landy, 20, from Raleigh, N.C., as the person he saw try to steal a police bicycle during the tumult. Timoney testified that after he was struck by a bicycle, he got up off the pavement and saw Landy pulling away one of the police bikes. Timoney said that he grabbed the bike but that Landy yanked it away and threw it at Timoney. The bike struck Timoney in the left knee. The commissioner testified he suffered "bumps, bruises and scratches." Police Officer Clyde Fraser, who was with Timoney, testified that he punched Steinberg, a junior at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, when he saw the bike being used as a weapon. Steinberg fell and was later handcuffed and arrested, Fraser said. After hearing from Timoney and two other officers, Municipal Court Judge Louis G.F. Retacco ordered the three defendants to stand trial on charges of aggravated and simple assault, riot, conspiracy, and other felonies. "I find it very plausible that there was a conspiracy to obstruct justice in this case," Retacco said. Retacco discounted defense arguments that because Landy and Steinberg did not physically assault any officers, some charges should be dropped. "You had three police officers, all in uniform. They go in to quell a disruption," he said. "I agree maybe they didn't know each other, but at some point they all got into a conspiracy to obstruct the police in performance of their duty." Retacco said he would not lower the $450,000 bail for Landy and Steinberg because a Common Pleas Court judge, representing a higher court, had refused to lower the bail. But Retacco reduced by two-thirds - to $150,000 - the bail for Viveiros, which had been set by a bail commissioner and not a judge. "The bail of $450,000 is outrageous," said defense attorney Paul Hetznecker, who said his client, Viveiros, had been a tenant organizer for 11 years in Massachusetts. The judge agreed and suggested the other defense attorneys, Howard Popper and Catherine Recker, go before Common Pleas Court judges to get their clients' bail reduced. Recker called Landy's $450,000 bail "excessive and punitive." Popper said the defendants were with more serious crimes than the facts warranted because Timoney was an alleged victim. Family and friends of the imprisoned defendants were in court yesterday, distraught that their loved ones were behind bars. Margie and Harold Steinberg of Memphis, Tenn., said their son Eric, who has lived in Philadelphia since 1998 to attend the University of the Arts, telephoned them before the protests to say he was going to be a messenger, carrying a radio, to tell protesters where they could get medical or legal help. "He said he was not going to do anything that would cause him to get arrested," Harold Steinberg said outside the courtroom. "He is not an outside agitator," Margie Steinberg said. "He is a resident and a student. This summer he was working as a cabinetmaker." Mimi Budnick said her boyfriend, Viveiros, was a community organizer in the Boston area who had spent years fighting for the rights of poor people - and that he was not a rabble-rouser. Ellen Landy called her son, Darby, "a good young man with a very big heart" who prepares and serves meals to the homeless in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., and "wants to make a positive difference in the world." Later yesterday, protesters held another news conference to decry jail conditions, high bails, and the city's hard stance on demonstrators. Released activist John Sellers, director of the Berkeley, Calif.-based Ruckus Society, yesterday denied any connection to last week's violence. "Ruckus condemns the use of violence in any form," he said. "We've never taught the use of vandalism or property destruction in a political protest. We've never advocated the use of vandalism by other organs." Sellers said police targeted throngs of nonviolent protesters instead of going after the smaller number of violent people. "It wasn't very hard to tell who was smashing glass out here last Tuesday," Sellers said. "If they wanted to arrest those people, they would have arrested those people. They chose to target nonviolent protesters, organizers, and folks who were standing in the street in acts of conscience." The activists with R2K and the Philadelphia Direct Action Group maintained that more than 450 people were arrested - not 391, as police have reported - and that more than 300 were still in custody. Prison spokesman Robert Eskind yesterday said 117 protesters, including John and Jane Does, remained in jail because of inability to meet bail. Four male protesters are on a monitored hunger strike, and 26 have missed the last three meals, Eskind added. Common Pleas Court Judge Lisa A. Richette yesterday ordered the release of 18 protesters who agreed to give their identifies and sign for their bail. Bail hearings are scheduled for 27 protesters today and 33 tomorrow. All are expected to be released, said Bradley Bridge, a public defender. Linda Loyd's e-mail address is lloyd@phillynews.com Stop the execution! New trial for Mumia! Youth & Students for Mumia http://www.mumia2000.org