Cindy on Trial in NY: Could Get a Year

Tweet (December 6, 2006)—Last week anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was a spectator in a Waco courtroom, where two Texas protesters were on trial for obstruction of a public road in connection with demonstrations near the president’s Crawford-area ranch.
On Wednesday Sheehan was in court again, this time in New York City and this time as a defendant.

She and three other women are charged with trespassing in connection with a protest at the US Mission to the United Nations, where the women tried to deliver an anti-war petition with more than 70,000 signatures on March 6.

Prosecutors say the four were arrested after they sat down in front of the mission building, ignored police orders to leave and locked arms and legs to make it hard for police to move them.
But defense lawyers said the women did nothing wrong or illegal and that a videotape of the incident would vindicate them.

Sheehan and the other women were protesting as part of a group called Women Say No to War.
They are charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration.

Each faces a year in jail if convicted on all charges.

Sheehan gained international fame last year when she protested the Iraq war by camping along a rural roadside near the president’s Central Texas ranch.

Her 24-year-old son Casey died while serving with the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq in April 2004.