news-record.com

RALEIGH — A Wake County prosecutor dropped charges Tuesday against an Occupy Raleigh protester who has a disability and was charged with trespassing in October after she refused to move her chair.

Margaret Schucker, 57, received representation from the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation and Scott Holmes, a Durham-based lawyer who argued the arrest violated her right to free speech.

"I'm very pleased the district attorney agreed this was the right result for her," Holmes said after the hearing before District Court Judge James Fullwood.

The cases of the other protesters were delayed until April, he added.

"We're very pleased that the charges against Ms. Schucker have been dropped," Katy Parker, ACLU-NCLF Legal Director, said in a prepared statement. "Today's news is a victory for the First Amendment and for the rights of the disabled."

Schucker and seven other downtown demonstrators were arrested Oct. 27 after not leaving the sidewalk in front of the Capitol.

Schucker wore a blue and white handicapped permit on her chest and told officers she had back problems and needed the chair to participate.

Officers told Schucker she had a right to stay but that she could not continue to sit in the chair on the sidewalk.

Several of the protesters briefly resisted arrest by locking their arms together, but Schucker thrust her wrists out to the officers waiting to handcuff her.

ACLU representatives said she was not blocking traffic on the sidewalk and had made sure to leave at least three feet of space for passers-by, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. When she refused to move her chair, Schucker was arrested for second-degree trespassing.