PMR press release:

October 30, 2009 – Olympia, WA

Women celebrate victory, dismissal on all charges pending.

Since the anti-war demonstrations at the port of Olympia in November 2007, a number of women have been defending themselves against misdemeanor charges in Thurston County District Court. The last eight defendants, known as the Patient Eight, celebrated victory today after the Gross Misdemeanor charge of Obstructing an officer was dismissed, and the lesser charge of Attempted Disorderly Conduct was scheduled for dismissal on March 1.

In late October, 2008, a full year after the port protests, 25 women were singled out for prosecution by Thurston County Proscutors. Since then, defendants and their attorneys have appeared in court more than 13 times over eleven months. While scaling back prosecutions of misdemeanors across the board, the cash-strapped prosecutor's office has doggedly continued to persue these charges. At the hearing today presiding Judge Sam Myers commented, “everyone's anxious to get these matters over with.”

The defendants, clad in black witches hats, circled the prosecutor, Jim Powers, and successfully negotiated the court fees down to the unusually nominal amount of fifty dollars and reduced the deferment time on the lesser charge to four months. After the agreements were signed, the women took the opportunity to speak eloquently about their experience with the court and the integrity of the Women's Demonstration. Full transcripts can be found at OlyPMR.org. Patricia Imani and Kim Chaplin's statement read, in part “we are proud that we stood for peace. We are proud that we said 'No' as the war machine cycled through our public ports. We are not criminals, but those who upheld the highest international laws and the highest laws of humanity. We stand for Peace only.”