ACLU Enters Appearance in New round of
Previously-Dismissed Criminal Libel CaseFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 1998The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (ACLU), which successfully invoked the First Amendment to defend a Fort Collins high school student whose satirical writings about school administrators resulted in felony charges of criminal libel, entered its appearance again today in Larimer County juvenile court to defend its client against new criminal charges of harassment filed by the District Attorney’s office earlier this month.
According to the ACLU, the misdemeanor harassment charges are based on the same publications as the criminal libel charge that Judge Hiatt dismissed on First Amendment grounds in a July 23, 1998 order.
"Judge Hiatt has already ruled that the First Amendment protects our client and these publications from prosecution for criminal libel," said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. "The First Amendment also protects these publications from these new charges of illegal harassment."
"It is the District Attorney who is guilty of harassment," said Todd Taylor, a Greeley attorney who is serving as an ACLU volunteer cooperating attorney. "Our client was first charged with harassment in the fall of 1997. When he exercised his constitutional right to plead not guilty, the DA responded, inappropriately, by substituting the felony charge of criminal libel. After Judge Hiatt threw out the criminal libel charges on First Amendment grounds, the DA appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court, which rejected the DA’s papers in less than two days. Now the DA has re-filed the harassment charges. Why is the Larimer County District Attorney harassing this high school student with repeated criminal prosecutions for writings that are protected by the First Amendment?"
Marcy Glenn, of the Denver law firm of Holland & Hart, who drafted the ACLU’s brief attacking the criminal libel charges, will also work as an ACLU cooperating attorney in the case.
Return to 1998 News Releases Main Page
Return to ACLU of Colorado Home PageThis page was last updated 01/15/00.
© Copyright 1998, ACLU of Colorado, All Rights Reserved