Protesters arraigned

At their arraignment Monday, the 16 protesters charged with trespassing at Brown's Woods pleaded innocent and asked for jury trials.\nSeveral of them occupied trees in the hope of ending plans to build an apartment complex on the privately owned woodland just east of Ind. 37. The Indianapolis-based developer, Herman and Associates, intends to start construction on the publicly subsidized affordable housing project later this month.\nAn early morning raid Friday spearheaded by Monroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp resulted in the arrests. The 50-acre parcel, which the activists said is too environmentally sensitive for a high-density development, is now guarded around the clock by a private security firm.\n"It is not a crime to protect your community from greedy individuals, just as it is not a crime to defend your home from an invader," said senior Matt Turissini. "Bloomington is our home."\nEarly Saturday morning, Turissini and five others chained themselves arm-to-arm to sewer grates on either side of the street past the police line on Basswood Drive, which leads up to the woodland. They were all arrested and charged with trespassing, a class A misdemeanor that can carry up to a year in jail.\nLucille Bertuccio, a 65-year-old who tried to cross police lines in spite of repeated warnings, was charged with resisting arrest as well as criminal trespass. Many faced initial charges of resisting arrest, which Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzman dropped.\n"It's the standard of this office to drop the charge unless someone forcibly resists arrest," he said. "They were all passive, so it doesn't apply."\nSalzman said it's highly unusual to ask for a jury trial for a misdemeanor charge.\n"They want to clog up the system," he said. "They just want to make this as public and drawn out as possible."\nAbout 50 people gathered outside of the Justice Building Monday to peacefully demonstrate. They chanted, marched around the courthouse and bore cardboard placards urging that the charges be dropped. They've dubbed the group "The Bluebird 16."\nThe crowd included Frank Ambrose, who allegedly drove 10-inch nails into trees at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest last June to prevent logging on public land. Ambrose, a once-prominent local activist who's since moved to Detroit, said he attended the arraignment to provide moral support.\nSeveral demonstrators tried to sit in for the hearing, which lasted three hours and processed all defendants charged with offenses over the weekend. The courtroom only seats 50, and many milled outside a closed door. A few county employees in adjoining offices facetiously sprayed air-freshener in the protesters' general direction. \nMarc Haggerty, a longtime activist who has been working on a documentary on the protest, was the first charged with trespassing to be arraigned. He said he was acting as a journalist when he was arrested.\nDeputies wrestled Haggerty to the ground Friday when he refused to turn over his camera and leave the property, Sharp said. Haggerty's camera was smashed in the process -- along with a tape containing two hours of interviews and footage of the raid.\nHaggerty, a volunteer at WFHB Community Radio, said in a later interview that he planned to show his finished work on community-access television.\n"I'm an independent filmmaker," Haggerty said. "I have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else. I didn't see the corporate media roughed up."\nSharp has offered to pay for the camera but told Haggerty that the tape has been lost. Haggerty said he is looking into pursuing legal recourse against the arresting officers.\nHaggerty and the other 15 defendants told Brown they intend to represent themselves in court.\nThey admit to breaking the law but plan on making the case to a jury that it was justifiable.\nIndiana's constitution allows legal defense on such grounds, Salzman said.\n"We're one of the few states to allow jury nullification," he said. "Of course, it very rarely comes up"