Collins trespassing case dismissed

At least Rich Collins is not a trespasser: Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Paul M. Peatross has found Rich Collins not guilty of trespassing when, in May of last year, he handed out flyers for his General Assembly campaign outside of Whole Foods.
    Peatross’ ruling, which was sent to Collins’ lawyers last week, overturns a General District Court ruling that found Collins guilty of trespassing and fined him $50. Collins, a retired UVA professor and environmental activist, thinks that video of his actions and arrest, recorded by police, was the key to Peatross’ decision by showing that he didn’t have criminal intent.
    “What [Collins] was engaging in is clearly the most protected action,” says Robert O’Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center of Free Expression. “In-person political campaigning really is at the core of the First Amendment protection [to free speech], so the claim here is an unusually strong one.”
    But that larger issue—whether he had a right to free speech in the private shopping mall’s parking lot—remains up in the air. Distinct from the criminal case, Collins has a civil lawsuit filed against Shoppers World, the center that includes Whole Foods. The Virginia Supreme Court will hear the case, as yet unscheduled.
    Peatross notes that, though Collins thought he had the right to distribute campaign literature outside Whole Foods, he in fact does not, under current interpretations of Virginia law. Collins and his lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and The Rutherford Institute, a locally-based civil liberties group, hope that interpretation will change with the civil suit.
    “If you look at it from a positive way, I am individually acquitted,” says Collins. “But I don’t have any legal right to go back and do what I did before.”
    “Most small towns, if you’re going to meet with anybody, it’s going to be at Wal-Mart,” says John Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “So the question is whether or not there is some place in those parking lots or areas of the sidewalk where people have First Amendment rights.…I think it’s something people have to think about because America is essentially becoming a corporate state.”