William C. Wardlaw
1969 Biltmore St. NW
D C 20009

12/21/85

To whom it may concern:

I, William C, Wardlaw, hereby swear & affirm that:

(1) On October 10, 1984, I entered Lafayette Park and found my friend William Thomas in a tree (which he had climbed as a means of drawing attention to the illegal incarceration of Cassimer Urban Jr.)

(2) Thomas & I talked, and Thomas asked me to take care of his signs if he were arrested. (These signs, or others like them, had been in the park for three years by this time; I had watched them on many occasions.)

(3) When Thomas was removed from the tree & arrested, people under the supervision of Deputy Chief J.C. Lindsey of the U.S. Park Police prepared to remove the signs. Lindsey was talking with Richard Robbins (Assistant Solicitor of the Dept. of the Interior). I had seen & talked with both men in the park many times. I went up to them and told Mr. Lindsey that Thomas had asked me to watch over the signs; that I was an associate & supporter of the vigil of which these signs were a part; that I had an interest in the survival of the vigil & of mankind; to please leave the signs alone; that I was prepared to take care of them.

(4) With a smirk and a sarcastic tone Mr. Lindsey said that it was his responsibility to protect Thomas's property while Thomas was under arrest. I said that I had been asked to look after the property & would do so. Mr. Lindsey asked if I had anything in writing. I said that I did not, but that many people had heard Thomas ask me to watch the signs. Mr. Lindsey ignored me & continued with his work, which by this time had begun to involve the destruction of the signs. Mr. Robbins smiled.

(5) I ran over to Thomas's Mobile Speakers Platform and began pushing it off thru the park. I was stopped. Mr. Lindsey told me that if I continued to "interfere" I would be arrested. Watching Mr. Lindsey's workers battering one of the large signs into pieces (by smashing it with long poles & crowbars), I told Mr. Lindsey that it was obvious that he was not interested in "protecting" Thomas's property, but that, quite to the contrary, his interest was in destroying the anti-nuclear vigil of which I was a part & which I was trying to protect. Again he threatened me with arrest and I stepped aside.

(6) Mr. Lindsey's workers continued to destroy the signs, breaking the larger ones into many pieces; took crowbars and ripped the doors off the Mobile Speakers Platform; loaded everything onto trucks; and left the park.

I swear under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge & recollection.

Subscribed And Sworn This William C. Wardlaw 23rd Day of December, 1985.

Notarized:

1/31/88