Editors note: Accused of domestic terrorism in the course of the Chicago NATO summit, Brian Church, Brent Betterly and Jared Chase were arguably victims of police entrapment and the use of “Red Squad” tactics the Chicago police were formerly enjoined from employing.
The NATO 3—Brent Betterly, Jared Chase, and Brian Jacob Church—appeared in court again on Tuesday for a brief status hearing. The hearing began with the prosecution stating that they had filed the Fourth Supplemental Answer to Discovery and that most of the remaining evidence in the case has been given to the defense.
The prosecution also requested photographs of all the defendants’ tattoos. The defense strongly objected since the tattoos were not relevant to the charges against the defendants, some of them had received tattoos during the time they have been incarcerated pending trial, and the relevance of any tattoos would be hard to show since it may be unclear which tattoos they had when. The judge granted the request and the photographs were scheduled to be taken in the holding area of the courtroom after the next hearing so the defense attorneys could be present.
Finally, the judge talked with the defense and prosecution to lay out this trial schedule:
* Sept. 3: Next status hearing
* Oct. 1: Discovery deadline
* Oct. 15: Deadline for responses to discovery issues
* Oct. 29: Deadline for submitting motions in limine
* Nov. 12: Deadline for responses to these motions in limine
* Nov. 26: Deadlines for submitting exhibit lists and trial briefs
* Dec. 10: Final pre-trial conference
* Jan. 6, 2014: Trial
Now that a clearer trial timeline is in place, the defense team is kicking up its preparations to ensure the strongest defense for our comrades, who remain behind bars. You can make a tax-deductible donation to their support fund by sending a check or money order with “8th Day Center/NATO 5 Defense Fund” in the memo line to:
8th Day Center for Justice
205 W. Monroe St. Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60606
You can also make secure donations online at https://www.wepay.com/donations/nato-5-defense (these donations are not tax-deductible, unfortunately).
To keep up-to-date, sign up for our announcements listserv by emailing nato-5-announce-subscribe@lists.riseup.net, find us on Facebook at Free the NATO 5! (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-the-Nato5/172345546229824), and follow us on Twitter @FreeNATO5 (https://twitter.com/FreeNATO5). Our complete court notes can be found at https://nato5support.wordpress.com/court-documents/court-notes/.