"Activist's trespass conviction reversed" is the headline to a story today by Seth Slabaugh in the Muncie StarPress. The story reports on the Court of Appeals decision in Carol J. Blakney v. State of Indiana (12/23/04 IndCtApp), reported here last week in the ILB. [The Blakney decision is a companion to Abel A. Alves v. State of Indiana (10/12/04 IndCtApp), summarized in this ILB entry from October.] Some quotes from the beginning of today's StarPress story:
MUNCIE - The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed the criminal trespassing conviction of environmental/animal rights advocate Carol Blakney.[Update 12/31/04] Here is the AP report today on the story. A quote:Blakney and her husband, Ball State history professor Abel Alves, were convicted by a jury nearly a year ago of trespassing at the Seldom Rest confined-hog-feeding operation.
"I still don't feel 100 percent good about this because of what happened to Abel as a result of my activism," Blakney said Wednesday.
"Until they convicted us, we really didn't believe anyone was taking this seriously. It has taken us time to find out these people mean business."
Blakney called a prior ruling by the appellate court affirming her husband's conviction "bizarre."
A neighbor of the farm's owners, William and Kaye Whitehead, testified that on Oct. 12, 2002, he saw Blakney behind the wheel of a car parked along a Delaware County road and Alves standing on a gate on which was posted a "No Trespassing" sign.Posted by Marcia Oddi at December 30, 2004 04:11 PMIn its October ruling upholding Alves' conviction, the court found that while there was no evidence he opened or climbed over the gate, a "jury could have reasonably inferred that at least part of his body entered the air space" above the farm.
In reversing Blakney's conviction, appellate Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote that evidence showed Blakney did not enter the Whiteheads' property beyond the "No Trespassing" sign. Vaidak wrote that there was "insufficient" evidence for her conviction.
Blakney had filed a complaint in August 2002 against Seldom Rest with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. That complaint led the state to accuse the Whiteheads of housing 150 hogs in an unpermitted barn and allowing manure from the barn to run into a ditch. The Whiteheads corrected the violations.
Kaye Whitehead, who is the Republican Party chairwoman in Delaware County, declined to comment on the reversal of Blakney's conviction.
But Judi Calhoun, the Delaware County deputy prosecutor who handled the case against Blakney and Alves, said the ruling erodes the rights of property owners to keep out trespassers.
The court's opinion said that if the Whiteheads did not want people to enter their farm between a county road and a "No Trespassing" sign posted on a gate 30 or 40 feet from the road, they should have posted the sign closer to the road.
"This means I no longer control my property if my sign is a few feet off the boundary," Calhoun said.