Richard Newburger. Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune. Richard Newburger, 57, was charged with felony aggravated battery to a police officer Wednesday. (Chicago police photo)
A Logan Square man charged with aggravated battery against a Chicago police officer during a Ferguson, Mo.-related protest was ordered released from custody Thursday after a highly charged hearing that threatened to turn into another protest.
Several dozen activists had gathered in the courtroom at 26th Street and California Avenue to support Richard Newburger, who wore jeans and a black jacket and kept his hands behind his back as he was led before the judge.
Cook County prosecutors alleged that the police officer was assigned to the Loop protest and riding a bicycle Wednesday when Newburger, 57, struck him with his shoulder, knocking the officer off his bike. The officer was not injured, prosecutors said.
A police report of the interaction states that Newburger “aggressively bumped” the bike officer, causing him to lose balance as Newburger was attempting to disrupt traffic.
Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil, however, had barely made it through the allegations when she stopped the hearing to tell the activists seated in the courtroom to keep their voices down, at one point asking a woman if she had a problem because she appeared to be laughing.
Sheriff’s deputies then walked up to some of the activists and ordered them to leave or face arrest.
With the situation escalating, Kuriakos Ciesil interrupted, saying, “Let’s all just take a moment.”
“There is no yelling and screaming in my courtroom,” she said. ”Let’s all just take a breather. It’s Thanksgiving Day.”
The judge then advised those gathered that they could protest outside but that if anyone did so in her courtroom she would have the sheriff’s deputies arrest them. With that, she detailed the various types of bonds to everyone in the courtroom, explaining that she wanted them to understand what her bond decision in Newburger’s case would mean.
Prosecutors said Newburger had no criminal history, and Kuriakos Ciesil ordered him released on his own recognizance, scheduling his next court appearance for Dec. 3.
The activists then quietly filed out of the courtroom.
After the hearing, Newburger’s lawyer, Martha Conrad, described him as a longtime activist and disputed the account given by prosecutors and police.
Newburger was holding a banner with other protesters when the police officer ran into him, according to Conrad, who said she witnessed part of the interaction.
“It was a peaceful protest,” she said. “They, themselves, said there was no injury.”
Newburger had been part of a group of demonstrators who gathered to protest a grand jury’s decision not to indict a Ferguson, Mo., police officer for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown in August. Fellow protesters said Newburger and two women were arrested after they “peacefully stepped into the street … with a banner calling for ‘Justice for Mike Brown!’”
Nora Twain, 63, was charged with obstructing traffic and resisting a police officer, both misdemeanor charges, police said. Deirdre Dietrichson, also 63, was charged with obstructing traffic, also a misdemeanor.
Both were released Wednesday evening, police said.
The protest was one of many in Chicago and across the country after an announcement Monday that the grand jury would not charge Officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s shooting.
