Sep 15, 2008 5:24 pm US/Pacific
Trial Date Set For 2 UC Tree Sitters
BERKELEY (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
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Tree sitters raise their arms towards supporters while sitting atop a redwood tree on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008.
AP
Two of four tree-sitters who were arrested last Tuesday at the end of a 21-month-long protest at a grove of trees near the University of California, Berkeley's football stadium had Oct. 3 trial dates set Monday, according to their chief ground supporter, Eric Eisenberg, also known as Ayr.
Ayr said 26-year-old Michael Schuck, also known as "Shem," and Ernesto Trevino Pena, 18, both want to have a speedy trial on misdemeanor counts of contempt of court for violating a court order and lodging illegally stemming from the long-running protest against the university's plans to tear down most of the trees near the stadium so it can build a new sports training facility.
According to Ayr, the other two tree-sitters who were arrested last Tuesday, Raul Colocho, 27, also known as "Huckleberry," and Armando Resendez, 20, also known as "Mando," waived their right to a speedy trial at a brief hearing in Alameda County Superior Court Monday and are scheduled to return to court Oct. 8 for a pretrial hearing.
Prosecutor Teresa Ortega couldn't be reached for comment on the tree-sitters' cases.
Ayr said Pena and Resendez have been out of custody since Thursday night, shortly after Superior Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers reduced their bail from $11,788 to $1,500.
Ayr said he expects Colocho, a former New York Times employee, to be released Monday because a judge reduced his bail to $1,500. Last Thursday Gonzalez Rogers reduced Colocho's bail from $11,788 to $5,500.
Colocho's attorney, Carol Strickman, also said she expects him to be released on bail.
Schuck remained in custody in lieu of $15,000 bail.
Schuck has a higher bail because he faces more charges than the other tree-sitters since he faces an additional misdemeanor criminal contempt charge for allegedly violating an order to stay away from the tree grove after he was arrested in April 2007 for occupying a redwood tree in Sproul Plaza on campus. He also is accused of violating his probation in that case.
Schuck's bail had been $47,000, but Gonzales Rogers agreed to reduce it to $15,000 last Thursday after his attorney, Hunter Pyle, said Schuck has been in the Bay Area for seven years, has a job as a care provider and plans to return to UC-Berkeley
After Monday's hearing, Pena said he thinks Schuck isn't in a hurry to get out of custody because "he enjoys ministering" to other inmates at the county jail.
Pena said he's already served a total of four days in the county jail for charges related to the tree protest and he hopes he doesn't have to face more jail time if he's convicted of the current charges against him.
But he said, "I'm not sure what will happen in the end."
Resendez said, "The university wants us to pay money for the cost of policing the tree grove, but it wasn't our choice to do the police action."
"The campus police say they were just doing their work in policing the site, but we were doing our work by protesting," he said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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