THOMAS v. REAGAN
USDC Cr. No. 84-3552
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WILLIAM THOMAS, et al
Plaintiff Pro Se
versus CA 84-3552
Judge Louis Oberdorfer
UNITED STATES, et al
Defendants
DECLARATION OF ROBERT DORROUGH RE
April 8, 1987
I, Robert Dorrough, declare under penalty of perjury that the
following is accurate and correct to the best of my knowledge:
1. At, or about noon on April 8, 1987 I observed U.S. Park
Police Lt. Hugh Irwin engaged in conversation with USPP Sgt. Lynch,
and Officer David Schlosser (sp ?).
2. I asked a friend to watch my sign, and went to the
bathroom.
3. When I returned a few minutes later I observed Sgt. Lynch
and Officer Schlosser talking to Concepcion Picciotto at her
demonstration site. Sgt. Lynch was telling Concepcion that she had
too much property, and that she would have until One o'clock to
remove the two rubber mats which covered the four footsquare of
sidewalk between Concepcion's two signs. She could have one mat,
but not two. When Concepcion asked why she was told: "I'm here to
protect the bricks." A couple of legal writing pads were also
deemed as excess. Additionally she was told that she could no
longer have the peanuts and bird seed that she had to feed the
park's wildlife.
4. I continued to observe as the two officials, being closely
supervised by Lt. Irwin, move west to the next demonstration site.
Sgt. Lynch told Sunrise that he too had excess property. Sunrise
responded by demanding that the Sergeant write him a ticket so that
the Court would be able to decide what was and was not "excess."
The Sergeant repeated his warning about "excess property," without
further explanation and gave Sunrise until one o'clock to comply.
5. The officers moved to the Dr. Charles Hyder demonstration
site where Dr. Jim Evans was attending the signs. Sgt. Lynch said
that he was in compliance with the regulation.
6. Moving down the sidewalk the officers came to the site of
the Thomas' demonstration. Sgt. Lynch warned Thomas that he had
excess property. Thomas asked what specifically was the sergeant
referring to. "The teddy bear, and that brown plastic bag," the
sergeant said. "I have literature in the bag." Thomas replied.
Sgt. Lynch then told Thomas that he was "here to warn you that you
have excess property." There was a further exchange of words
before Sgt. Lynch warned Thomas that he had "until one o'clock to
come into compliance."
7. Sgt. Lynch and Officer Schlosser, still closely
supervised by Lt. Irwin, then approached me and asked to look under
a plastic poncho I have covering my sleeping bag and sheet of
plastic for rainy days. They asked what the other stuff was. I
had three (3) expandable folders of literature, 1 chess set, two
coats, one was mine the other belonged to Scott Galindez, with whom
I had been playing chess. There was a sweater, that I wasn't
wearing at the time because it had turned into a nice sunny day,
and two one gallon water jugs. "Okay," Sgt. Lynch said. "You're
perfectly within the regulation."
8. At about one-thirty PM, Officer Cohen and a National Park
Service employee known to me only as "Martha" approached the area
of the various demonstrations with a copy of the "Permit
Conditions" document dated March 20, 1987. At the Sunrise
demonstration "Martha" was complaining that the sweepers did not
have the necessary eight foot clearance to maintain the sidewalk.
However a tape measure was produced and the clearance was shown to
be eight foot one inch.
9. Next "Martha" complained to the Thomas demonstration that
the distance between the Thomas demonstration and the Dorrough
demonstration was not 8 ft.. Thomas responded by measuring the
distance on the sidewalk, illustrating that it was 9 ft.
10. Even though the clearance was sufficient for the sweeper
I offered to move my signs every day if necessary for the sweeper
to perform its job.
11. Thomas asked whether "at 1:30 PM, April 8, 1987" he was
not in violation of any regulations, and Officer Cohen said: "Yes."
12. At about 2:00PM Sgt Maimoe (sp ?) approached the Thomas
demonstration to warn him about "excess property."
13. Thomas asked to be told specifically which items were in
violation. There was considerable conversation in which the
sergeant named no specific items. Finally the sergeant said:
"You've seen the regulations on paper. Comply with them. I'll
talk to you later." He then left the scene in his cruiser.
Sworn to this ____ day of April, 1987
_________________________________
Robert Dorrough
Case Listing --- Proposition One ---- Peace Park