Holding Public Officials Accountable is Praiseworthy

Openly recording public officials is not wrong or illegal. Statutes, court precedent and public
opinion concur. Yet that has not prevented Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey A. Bengston from
wasting taxpayer dollars pursuing felony wiretapping charges against indie-journalists Adam
Mueller and Pete Eyre, who were openly recording last July when attempting to bail out a friend
at Franklin County Jail.

Perhaps Bengston is unaware that the same charge levied against Emily Peyton for videotaping
an antiwar protest in Greenfield was dismissed because she had not been recording in secret.
Or that Simon Glik and Jon Surmacz - both charged with felony wiretapping elsewhere in the
Commonwealth - were vindicated based on the open way that they too had been recording.

As Mueller explained, "a camera doesn't lie and it's the most effective way to hold individuals
accountable. Yet he and Eyre were arrested, held overnight in jail and have thus far been
ordered to appear in court on four separate occasions despite the fact that even the arresting
officers acknowledge that the pair was openly recording.

n the eight months since their unjust arrests, Mueller and Eyre have sought accountability.
Faxes, emails and well over 100 phone calls to the prosecutor, police department and mayor's
office have been ignored. They pair even reached out to Greenfield-native Penn Jillette, who
in one segment about their situation, noted that "They've done something really really wrong in
arresting those guys.

Two weeks ago Mueller and Eyre traveled to Greenfield to attend the monthly meeting of the
Public Safety Commission - tasked with police, fire and EMS oversight. Budget deficits were a
common concern, which Mueller highlighted during the public comment time, drawing parallels
between Peyton's case (charges dropped) and he and Eyre's identical situation (charges still
being pursued).

How many taxpayer dollars have been spent pursuing something that has only one inevitable
outcome - dismissal? How many more taxpayer dollars will be wasted before Greenfield public
servants are accountable and drop the charges?

Bengston would do well to listen to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice
Margaret Marshall, who penned that: "Citizens have a particularly important role to play when
the official conduct at issue is that of the police . . . Their role cannot be performed if citizens
must fear criminal reprisals when they seek to hold government officials responsible by
recording, secretly recording on occasion, an interaction between a citizen and a police officer.

For more visit: http://CopBlock.org/Greenfield