Fall River Herald News, Thursday, February, 26, 1998

Group Opposes Anti-Protest Ruling
By Curt Brown, Herald News Staff Reporter,

Men's coalition booted from front of Fall River courthouse

FALL RIVER - The fatherhood Coalition has appealed a judge's decision
barring them from demonstrating directly outside 2nd District court during
a member's trial on domestic abuse charges.

Earl Henry Scholley of Medway, a member of the Fatherhood Coalition, which
is fighting for equal treatment of men under the state's domestic abuse
laws, filed a complaint against Judge Antone S. Aguiar Wednesday in
Superior Court.

The complaint also names the city of Fall River and the Police Department
as defendants. Aguiar is the presiding justice of 2nd District Court, Fall
River.

Judge John M. Xifaras has scheduled a hearing on the complaint for March 5
at 2 p.m. in Superior Court.

The hearing raises the constitutional issue of a group's First Amendment
rights against a defendant's right for a fair trial.

Protesters from the Fatherhood Coalition were forced by Aguiar, under the
threat of arrest, to move their demonstration to a side street and out of
view of people in the courthouse.

The protest was conducted Feb. 19 during the trial of Raymond Saulnier, a
41 year-old Fall River man and a member of the Fatherhood Coalition.

The judge cited a state law that protects court personnel and said the
protesters' actions posed the threat of intimidation to jurors, judges and
prosecutors.

Judge David Turcotte, who was scheduled to hear Saulnier's trial, feared
the defendant's right to a fair trial could be in jeopardy. He sent jurors
home and continued the trial until March 9 in 2nd District Court.

The state alleges Saulnier violated a restraining order in June and October
of last year when his children saw him. The protective order bars conduct
of any kind between Saulnier and his former wife and children.

The group's complaint seeks protection of the Fatherhood Coalition's rights
for peaceful assembly.

"Plaintiff seeks an order restraining the defendants from intimidating,
coercing, threatening arrest and incarceration of the demonstrator at the
Fall River District Court in the peaceful and lawful exercise of his First
Amendment Rights," according to the complaint.

Sholley denies the Fatherhood Coalition intimidated jurors, who he said
were already in the courthouse when they started the protest.

He said that at all times orderly, quiet and respectful and obeyed the
wishes of police when told to move.

Contrary to the threat of intimidation they posed, Sholley argued the
presence of an office to obtain restraining orders, located near the
courthouse's main entrance, presented a greater influence on prospective
jurors coming into the building.

"One could also argue that no-drop policies in domestic violence cases
regarding innocuous violations of a civil order, the many domestic violence
signs and posters at the courthouse, assigning mostly female DAs to
prosecute domestic violence cases, the plethora of victim services for
alleged victims, and the blatantly sexist literature available to the
public at the Fall River District Court corrupt the entire judicial process
to a much greater degree than any public demonstration could avers this
plaintiff," Sholley said in his complaint.

The Fatherhood Coalition says it has conducted similar demonstrations while
trials were being conducted at other courts without being told to move away
from the buildings.