Rainbow trials need more room, lawyer says
Deborah Frazier And Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
Published June 29, 2006 at midnight
The trials for the Rainbow Family members in a small, rural firehouse on charges of camping without a permit should stop and resume in a public courtroom, attorney David Lane said Wednesday.
In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, Lane said that access to the first round of trials was denied to the public and some of the attorneys for the Rainbow Family members.
He said the firehouse's limited space effectively turned the trials into "secret proceedings" and asked for a temporary restraining order to halt the trials.
An estimated 20,000 members of the Rainbow Family will gather next week in the Routt National Forest but were unable to get a camping permit because of the fire danger.
About 4,000 Rainbow Family members have already arrived.
U.S. Marshals and Forest Service enforcement officers have arrested about 249 people for camping without a permit. Some also face alcohol and drug charges.
The trials, which started last weekend and are scheduled to resume Friday, were held in the modest firehouse, which had room to seat the judge and 17 defendants and prosecutors. There was limited standing room for the public and media.
"The Rainbow Family chose a remote location for their gathering, and the government wanted to provide a court facility that would not be inconvenient for them," said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney.
Lane said that the inadequate access violated the First Amendment right to free speech and the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.
"Even counsel for several of the defendants awaiting trial were unable to observe the trials of others in order to prepare," Lane said.
Dorschner said that the trials were not closed to the public or the media but that the extra seats and standing-room area went to the "first-come, the first-served."
Federal officials were considering building a public address system so more people could listen to the proceedings outside the firehouse, Dorschner said.
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