MICHAEL BADNARIK ARRESTED

October 8

8:38PM CT

The first report from St. Louis is in - and presidential candidates Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) and David Cobb (Green Party) were just arrested. Badnarik was carrying an Order to Show Cause, which he intended to serve the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Earlier today, Libertarians attempted to serve these same papers at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the CPD - but were stopped from approaching the CPD office by security guards.

Fred Collins reported to me from the ground that Badnarik and Cobb are in great physical condition and great spirit.

As soon as more details are available, they will be posted here immediately.

8:51PM CT

I just spoke with Jon Airheart on his cellular telephone. He reports that while he could see no handcuffs, both Badnarik and Cobb had their hands behind their backs, as if they were handcuffed. Airheart also confirms that Badnarik did have the papers to serve the CPD in his jacket pocket.

9:09PM CT

The first AP report just hit Google News:

Just as the debate began, two third-party presidential candidates purposely crossed a police barricade and were arrested. Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik were protesting their exclusion from the debate

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10:09PM CT

My cell phone is ringing off the hook. There is no way to catch up with all of the messages left - and I am sure the memory is full by now. Things are going too fast to keep up with them.

Jon Airheart just reported that he and Fred Collins are catching a taxi to the jail where Mike is currently located. The address is 200 South Tucker Street, St. Louis, MO. Jon stated that there were over one hundred police offices with helmets and shields in the particular line they crossed.

Thomas Knapp just reported that prior to their arrests, Badnarik and Cobb explained to the crowd why they chose civil disobedience to express their message. He stated that Badnarik had to â??bodilyâ? push his way through the police line. Once through, he peacefully surrendered, was handcuffed, and taken out of direct site.

10:30 PM CT

We now have multiple audioblogs from Jon Airheart (in chronological order) at:

http://www.audioblogger.com/media/23496/102201.mp3

http://www.audioblogger.com/media/23496/102271.mp3

http://www.audioblogger.com/media/23496/102278.mp3

10:42PM CST

More news reports:

This quote comes from this St. Louis Post-Dispatch report:

â??I have the freedom of speech and they have no authority to barricade that,â? Badnarik said from outside the security line.

The Progress Report reports:

â??Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik pushed his way through the police line at the debate site about a minute after Cobb and was similarly arrested. Cobb and Badnarik have participated in genuine, non-scripted, nonpartisan debates four times in this campaign; a fifth debate is scheduled for October 15 at Eastern Tennessee State University with a number of other candidates.â?

10:51PM CT

Apparently, we have overloaded the facilities at www.audioblogger.com. We will save and FTP the audioblog postings to our site as soon as we can retrieve them.

11:04PM CT

Jon Airheart and Fred Collins just called. They are at the city jail mentioned above. Jon stated, â??What I will now tell you shows the absolute ineptitude of government. They donâ??t even know, and wonâ??t know for three to four hours, whether he [Badnarik} is in this particular jail.â?

Fred Collins said, â??He [Badnarik] should have picked a better city in which to be arrested.â?

The question which remains is whether Mr. Badnarik is in the city or the county jail.

11:12PM CT

It is a good thing we changed servers last night - as we have been seriously farked tonight.

11:19PM CT

The following is reported via e-mail from George Getz, the Libertarian Party communications director about his attempt to serve the CPD in D.C. today:

All:

At about 2pm ET, I hand-delivered the paper called â??Arizona Case Order.â? I talked to David [Euchner - the lead attorney in the Arizona case] immediately afterward and he said the other papers can be faxed later. I am now back at the office, and thereâ??s no one here, so Iâ??m unaware of any developments.

I will also fax the affidavit, as David and I discussed earlier.

GG

11:23PM CT

Former LNC Chair and Operations Manager for the Badnarik campaign Geoffrey Neale responded with:

Do you have a signature from anyone at the CPD?

11:27PM CT

Here is Mr. Getzâ??s response to Mr. Neale:

Unfortunately, no. But this guy was so hostile there was no way he would have signed it. He wouldnâ??t even take it in his hand, and made me just put it on the desk instead.

He wouldnâ??t even tell me his name!?! â?? he was just â??Tom.â?

I replied, â??Tom, huh? Could you be more vague, Tom?â?

However, David (our attorney) was on the phone with â??Tomâ? at the time I came into the office, and overheard the whole conversation, so I donâ??t think he can deny it. The lawyer is an â??officer of the court,â? or whatever, and if he tells the judge thatâ??s what happened, that better be what happened. Plus, in my affidavit I described the schmuck and his assistant schmuck pretty well, which would be very odd if I wasnâ??t there.

Letâ??s hope for the best.

George

11:50PM CT

Nancy Neale (Geoffrey Nealeâ??s darling wife) just sent me the following interesting link while I was being interviewed by some reporter from Missouri:

http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/thirdparties.html

12:04AM CT

Fred Collins just called on Jon Airheartâ??s cell phone, as Fredâ??s battery is ganz tot. He reports, â??The county jail says they donâ??t have him and the city jail says they donâ??t have him.â?

Where is Michael? Perhaps at Gitmo already?

12:33AM CT

Shortnews reports:

US Presidential candidates arrested entering CPD debate site US Presidential candidates Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) and David Cobb (Green) were arrested Friday in St. Louis after breaking through a police
line barricading the Commission on Presidential Debates event hosted at Washington University.

The candidates peacefully surrendered, protesting the exclusion of their opposing viewpoints and
questioning the legality of the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD).

Local police responded to the incidents by delivering two additional busloads of officers in riot
gear to the Universityâ??s event site.

12:43AM CT

Jon Airheart just called to tell me, â??WE FOUND HIM!â? He is reported to be at some medium-security lockup at 7600 North Hall Street. They are going to call Tamara Millay to see if she is closer than they are - but Fred and Jon are going to catch a cab nonetheless to pick up Mr. Badnarik.

An anonymous hotel employee employee told Jon, â??We need to get him out of there - it is not a pleasant place to be - but if you wish to escape its not that hard.â?

The facility is locally known as the â??City Work House.â?

Airheart reports that he called one number to find Mr. Badnarik, which led him to another number, which led him to another numberâ?¦

Eventually, before Fred and Jon found Mr.Badnarik, Mr. Badnarik called Jon.

Jon reports that Mr. Badnarik said the whole process would have taken a lot less time but there was a lot of commotion on campus. They arrested five students who â??literally just accidently crossed over into the â??no-longer-a-free-speech-zoneâ?? and they nearly were nearly taken out by snipers. According to the report, it was just five kids trying to go back to their dorms. After expressing outrage over the way the students were treated, Badnarik stated that this slowed his processing dramatically.

As Airheart was reporting this to me, he suddenly said, â??Cab is here - got to go! But tell people that this is just like a scene from the movie Brazil.â?

12:57AM CT

A gentleman by the name of Nick Patton called me. He said he â??lives in area.â?

He stated that crossing the initial police line was not diffucult. He had been in the tents near the debates for two hours and was leaving the premises to watch on it all video.

â??I was leaving and they took me down,â? Patton said.

There were four other youths who live off campus who were also accosted and detained for around four hours, Patton reported.

1:09AM CT

The story has been picked up here by WorldNetDaily.

01:22AM CT

A young man by the name of Abel Jones called me. He reported that he was walking back from the debate activities with one guy and two girls. They saw some guys who Jones said looked like Secret Service agents. They asked if they could cut across the lawn they were approaching, and the â??Secret Service looking guysâ? said they didnâ??t care.

After walking 20 to 40 yards, they were taken down by two officers and told there were snipers trained on them.

They were told they were â??lucky they were not hit by the snipers.â?

Jones said that no rights were read to them. He stated that one girl was treated roughly. Her earrings and shoelaces were taken off. He stated that she was treated more roughly than everyone else.

01:26AM CT

The story has just been picked up by Rational Review here.

01:47PM CT

I just talked with Mr. Badnarik. He was in his hotel room and eating some dinner.

He said that after he and Mr. Cobb were arrested, they were placed in a police van - then there was some delay as they threw some students in the van with them. The stories from two of them are posted in the prior two entries of this posting.

Mr. Badnarik says that they sat in a cell for one to one and a half hours. He reported that the fingerprinting process was not as thorough as he had expected.

They did not have to post any bail - but were given tickets for â??trespassâ? and â??refusing a reasonable order from a policeman".

Badnarik said that he had the papers to be served to the CPD in his pocket, but was never given opportunity to serve them.

01:52AM CT

The Cobb campaign has issued this press release.

02:02AM CT

Here is a screen shot of a Badnarik sign on MS-NBC.

02:09AM CT

Another MS-NBC screen shot.

02:22AM CT

I am now able to begin catching up on e-mail messages and voice mails. This one obviously caught my attention:

Stephen,

My name is Joel Beckwith. Iâ??m a supporter of Michaelâ??s from AZ. Iâ??m also running for office of course. Iâ??m writing to give you good news that today the papers of the AZLP vs. ASU and the CPD were delivered to ASU personally by myself. I just wanted to share you some photos from the event. Hopefully it will come out in Michaelâ??s favorâ?¦ â?¦Joel Beckwith

02:37AM CT

The following document is not yet available in .pdf format, so I have typed it below:

Affidavit
Friday October 8, 2004 3:35 PM
Statement by Samuel P. New and Margaret E. Taylor

Today at approximately 2:38PM, we entered the office building at 1200 New Hampshire Ave., NW in Washington, DC in order to serve Janet Brown at the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) with papers handed down by Judge Pendleton Gaines, Superior Court Judge in Maricopa County, AZ. In the lobby of the office building at 1200 New Hampshire Ave., NW. we were greeted by Officer S. Mack and another security officer. Officer Mack telephoned CPD to inform them of our visit and purpose. CPD refused to allow us to proceed to their office, on the fourth floor. We asked for the name of the person refusing to accept our materials, and the security officers informed us they did not know. We asked if we could wait in the lobby, while we placed a telephone call, we were told no, we would have to go outside. After consulting Geoff Neale, we returned to the lobby and left papers with Officer Mack, who told us that they were not accepted. We then left the building. This diologue is documented with digital pictures and an audio cassette which was recored in plain view, and I spoke directly into it.

[signed]
Margaret E. Taylor and Samuel P. New

[notarized in the District of Columbia]

02:40AM CT

The following two documents show two more attempts at serving the CPD.

Fax Service

E-mail Service

02:51AM CT

David Euchner sent the following message to Janet Brown at CPD:

From: David Euchner
Date: October 8, 2004 4:13:56 PM EDT
To: â??Stephen Gordonâ? , [email protected]
Subject: Re: Order to Show Cause

Dear Ms Brown,

Please contact my office immediately at 520-326-3550 or 520-400-8324 to confirm receipt of these documents.

David Euchner
Attorney for Plaintiffs Arizona Libertarian Party, Inc. and Warren Severin

03:04AM CT

The candidate is in bed, as he has a busy day scheduled for tomorrow. The reporters must have gone to bed, as well.

Two presidential candidates - Michael Badnarik and David Cobb - were arrested tonight. Papers were served to stop the third Bush - Kerry debate today. Neither of these stories (short of the aforementioned AP wire) were covered by the mainstream media.

We now know with whom the television networks went to bed tonight.

09:35AM CT

The story has been picked up by Slashdot.

http://badnarik.org/newsfromthetrail.php?p=1346