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Judge denies motion to restrict info of arrested Spencer protesters

March 16, 2018
Individuals file into the 54-B District Court at 101 Linden St. on March 16, 2018.
Individuals file into the 54-B District Court at 101 Linden St. on March 16, 2018. —
Photo by Marie Weidmayer | The State News

Nine people arrested at the protest against white nationalist Richard Spencer's speech at MSU were at the 54B District Court Friday afternoon.

Two more people were arraigned, Hannah Manela, charged with failure to obey police, an MSU ordinance and John Shade III, charged with an MSU trespassing ordinance and weapons ordinance. Both pleaded not guilty to their charges.

Attorney John Royal said he objected to media coverage of the court proceedings because of the way Nazi groups engage with protesters. He also asked for personal information to be deleted from court documents, including addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth.

"These groups habitually engage in a procedure known as doxxing, where they get information about the defendants and even their attorneys and use the internet to harass them with racist and sexist things and death threats," Royal said. 

Judge Richard Ball denied Royal's request to block media coverage. He also denied the request to delete information.

"I just don't know of any basis for deleting the information as requested and deny the motion," Ball said.

Seven people had pre-trial conferences and more preliminary dates were set for all of them. The people in court were Aaron Brown, Hannah Baker, Benjamin Greer, Jacob Chamberlain, Blair Walker, Daniel Smigel and Lacy Macauley.

Most requested more time before the next hearing to allow time to view videos from MSU Police from the day of the protest and arrests.

Dates for more hearings are March 28, April 5, April 12 and April 18.

Chelsea Manning was in attendance. Manning publicly disclosed classified documents, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, served 7 years and then former President Barack Obama commuted her sentence. 

Manning declined an interview, but her spokesperson said Manning was there to show support for the people arrested while they protested Nazis.

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