Tag: Eric Martin

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Found guilty: Theologian banned from UVA for life appeals decision

Anti-racist activist Eric Martin was found guilty of trespassing in UVA’s law library, where he entered and refused to leave a private room where Jason Kessler was studying. He’s appealing the conviction. Contributed photo

When about 40 protesters gathered at the University of Virginia School of Law library April 25 to chase off Jason Kessler, one man was arrested—and it wasn’t the one who brought hundreds of torch-wielding white supremacists to Grounds.

Eric Martin, a local activist and theologian, entered the private room where Kessler was studying, sat down, and quietly began reading The Rise and Fall of Apartheid. On October 2, Judge William Barkley found Martin guilty of trespassing and sentenced him to 30 days in jail, with all of the time suspended on the condition of two years of good behavior. He has also been banned from UVA for life.

Martin says he entered the room because he and the other protesters were unsure whether university officials were providing a safe space for Kessler.

“I just thought it would help clarify the status—does he have a private office or not?” Martin told C-VILLE in May. “And the second thing I thought was, ‘Hold up. They had eight months to protect their students by barring this white supremacist who brought people that maced and beat students and beat one of the librarians into a stroke.’”

A Charlottesville police officer and Stephen Parr, the law school’s chief administrative officer, asked Martin to leave the private librarian’s room. When Martin politely declined, as heard on a police body cam video shown in court, he was arrested for trespassing and removed in handcuffs.

Martin has appealed his conviction, and a trial date will be set in December, according to his attorney, Bruce Williamson.

“You don’t go to courtrooms for any kind of justice,” said Bill Streit, Martin’s friend, supporter, and fellow theologian, outside the courthouse. “If we lived in a just society, there would be no racism. White supremacy would be reconciled by justice.”

Kessler, meanwhile, has been banned from Grounds for four years.

In other white supremacy-related court news, Tyler Davis, the Florida man accused of participating in the August 12, 2017, Market Street Parking Garage beating of DeAndre Harris, pleaded not guilty to malicious wounding in Charlottesville Circuit Court on October 4. He’ll go to trial in February, while two others who participated in the beating have already been found guilty and are serving six and eight year sentences.

And Baltimore-based KKK leader Richard Preston was in the same courtroom that day, to request new counsel for an appeal.

In May, Preston pleaded no contest and was found guilty of firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on the day of the Unite the Right rally, when Corey Long famously pointed an improvised flamethrower in the vicinity of the Klansman. Both men claimed to be acting in self-defense, and Preston was sentenced to four years in prison.

In entering the no contest plea, Preston waived all rights to an appeal, says legal expert David Heilberg. However, if Preston wants to object to the advice he received from his lawyer, he has to exhaust the state appeals process first before he can file a habeas petition to complain about the legal representation he got.

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Activist-theologian: Kessler protester talks about trespassing arrest

Eric Martin was escorted out of the UVA law library in handcuffs, while the organizer of the Unite the Right rally was not. Courtesy photo

When about 40 protesters gathered at the University of Virginia School of Law library in April to chase off Jason Kessler, one man was arrested—and it wasn’t the one who brought hundreds of torch-wielding white supremacists to Grounds last summer.

As Kessler sat doing legal research for his upcoming lawsuits in a room that wasn’t open to the public, it appeared to those who wanted him gone that the university had offered him a safe space. UVA law spokesperson Mary Wood says Kessler was not given an office, and was being assisted by a law librarian in the librarian’s office.

But to clear up the confusion at the time, Eric Martin decided to study with Kessler, and was escorted out in handcuffs shortly thereafter.

“I just thought it would help clarify the status—does he have a private office or not?” says Martin. “And the second thing I thought was, ‘Hold up. They had eight months to protect their students by barring this white supremacist who brought people that maced and beat students and beat one of the librarians into a stroke.’”

Martin, a part-time Charlottesville resident who also lives in New York while teaching and working toward his Ph.D. at Fordham University, was reading The Rise and Fall of Apartheid as he sat with Kessler and was told by multiple people that he wasn’t allowed to be there.

One of those was Stephen Parr, the law school’s chief administrative officer, who brought a few law enforcement officers with him.

“The police were clearly waiting for him to make a decision,” says Martin, who adds that Parr told him he was trespassing and asked him to leave. The alleged trespasser who, among other things, teaches Christian nonviolence, says he replied with something along the lines of, “That’s fine. I’m not going to. The students don’t feel safe and I’m going to stay here until Kessler leaves.”

Laughing, Martin says, “And then he had me arrested. I understood that it was possible when he said I was trespassing, but I didn’t think they’d be dumb enough to walk me out of there in cuffs and leave [Kessler] in there. They made their choice on who was the bigger threat at that table.”

Though Martin says some students were in tears, too afraid to attend their classes near the building that Kessler was holed up in, the university is following through with the trespassing charge. He’s scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing May 22, after C-VILLE goes to press, and says the hearing will be continued to a later date because he’ll be out of town.

Martin will be defended by Jeff Fogel, who has represented several other community activists, and says he will plead not guilty.

After being cuffed, escorted out of the library and taken to jail, Martin was banned from the university. Kessler was also later banned, which Martin says is a sign that he was correct in his peaceful protest of allowing the “white supremacist” access to a private room that day.

“I would imagine that this is extremely embarrassing to [UVA],” says Martin. “I can’t believe they’re pressing charges.”

The ban presents a problem for Martin, who has been using the law library to do research for his dissertation. At the time of his arrest, he had 20 books checked out from Alderman Library and received an email from staff, which said he needed to return them, but couldn’t do so on campus. They arranged a meetup at the university police department, which Martin calls “high comedy.”

In addition, he will no longer be allowed to drive his wife, with whom he shares a car, to the Curry School of Education, where she works as a research assistant. He also faces a year in jail for the trespassing charge.

“That’s a very small sacrifice compared to what Corey Long and Donald Blakney are facing, so it’s hard to complain,” says Martin. “I’m getting the straight white guy treatment. …I have a whole lot of privilege. It’s easier for me to do this than other people.”

Adele Stichel, a rising third-year law student who was at the library on the day of Martin’s arrest, is calling for UVA to rescind the no trespassing order against him.

“I remember being shocked that [Martin] had been arrested while Mr. Kessler had not,” she says. “I think what Eric did was very brave and helped to reveal a troubling attitude that I and others have often sensed from the UVA administration, which is that resistance to white supremacy is somehow a greater threat than white supremacy itself.”

Martin says other supporters—the majority of whom he doesn’t know, including parents of students—have reached out to check on him, thank him or offer to pay his legal feels. In a letter of support from 250 signatories across the country, including many professors and students at Fordham, he’s called an “exemplar of the kind of activist-theologian the academy (Fordham) is presently cultivating.”

Over the past year, Charlottesville has been ground zero for white supremacist action and counterprotest, and some critics say it would all go away if ignored.

“That’s an argument that pays no attention to facts or empirical data,” says Martin. “That’s exactly what UVA tried to do, and clearly, eight months later, it did not go away. It keeps coming to the heart of their campus and terrorizing their students.”

Updated May 23 at 1:44pm to clarify that Martin’s books were checked out at Alderman Library.

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Kessler alert: UVA law library hits the books in search of ban

Jason Kessler's visits to the UVA law library have not been welcomed. Now non-students are not allowed until exams are over. Contributed photo

By Natalie Jacobsen

A tale of two incidents at the University of Virginia School of Law library has prompted the administration to restrict access to students-only for the exam period, which ends May 11.

On April 18, Charlottesville’s embattled whites-righter, Jason Kessler, entered the school’s library and plopped down in a central location to do what the other students had been trying to do: study.

But unlike for the students that roam the hallways daily, his legal research did not turn into an all-nighter among the books. His presence was quickly noticed, with students and professors taking personal action. A 3L—third-year law student—says Kessler was researching a way to petition his permit denial.

One librarian, Ben Doherty, who is an active member of Showing Up for Racial Justice, excused himself from the library when Kessler arrived. Doherty, who has been a target in Kessler’s tweets, declined to comment at this time.

Says a 2L, who asked not to be named, “A [group] of students and Professor [Anne] Coughlin were telling him to leave. Video was taken by him and by those who went to silently protest.” The silent protest came in the form of signs with messages such as “Blood on your hands” quickly printed off and held up “as he pretended to read,” says the 2L. Over the course of an hour and a half, the group fluctuated between five and 15 law school people.

Alicia Penn, who left the school when she heard Kessler was on grounds, says, “some allies really stepped up to the plate and put their bodies on the line.”

Two police arrived to observe. Eventually, Kessler responded to the presence of a handful of students and became loud, blasting racist and sexist statements as he stormed through the hallway and calling a friend to pick him up “because he didn’t trust the police, in his own words,” says the 2L. “He looked pissed off, even though the police and students were not forcing him out.”

No email alerts were sent to the student body while Kessler was on grounds.

Professor Coughlin has been leading the charge to dismiss Kessler entirely from the law school property. The university previously rejected the law school administration’s request for an outright ban, despite allowing homeless and drunk persons to be barred from accessing the school in the past. The library is open to the public during business hours.

Kessler is the organizer of the infamous Unite the Right rally and one of the alleged leaders who directed hundreds of white supremacists to carry tiki torches across UVA Grounds and Lawn last summer.

An impromptu forum to discuss the incident drew in students and faculty, who called for action. Dean Risa Goluboff seemed overwhelmed with emotion and said she “let down her students,” according to Penn. No immediate action was taken as far as students were concerned, and the issue went unresolved publicly for several days.

UVA law spokesperson Mary Wood, who initially did not return phone calls, now says the law school has been actively working with President Teresa Sullivan, the university counsel’s office and the police since April 18.

“I’m really disheartened by the university’s response,” says another 2L, who asked that he not be named because of threats from the alt-right. “The administration and police department should issue a no-trespass order against Kessler. There’s a record built that establishes he’s a danger to our community. They have all the information they need and they’ve done nothing while students at the law school have been dealing with this for two weeks right before finals. As a student of color, I expect more from UVA.”

Yesterday Kessler made a return to the law school, but this visit was cut much shorter. He was given a space in a staff office to continue his legal research, according to student sources, when a community activist entered the room. A law school administrator asked Eric Martin to leave and warned him he’d be arrested if he refused. When Martin did not go, two police officers on hand arrested him for trespassing, according video of the encounter.

Wood says Kessler was not given an office and he was being assisted by a law librarian in the librarian’s office.

In a video, Martin says, “If you want to arrest me and not Jason Kessler sitting right there, then go ahead.”

Martin came to grounds after Solidarity Cville tweeted about Kessler’s reappearance at the law school.

This time, Kessler approached Doherty near the circulation desk, and their voices escalated as Doherty stepped in to ask Kessler to leave, according to witnesses. A group of students gathered, brandishing their recording devices, and watched silently through their screens. Police soon escorted Kessler out peacefully.

The law school sent out an email alert and a follow-up once “the disturbance [had] been resolved.” Dean Goluboff wrote in the email, “Since last week, we have been working toward limiting access…and the plan was for the new policy to go into effect tomorrow morning. Given today’s events, I have decided to implement that policy immediately.”

Some students were not satisfied last week—nor this week—with the school’s response.

Says second-year Elizabeth Sines, who is currently one of a dozen plaintiffs suing Kessler for injury at the August 12 rally, “At this point, there are a group of us students trying to determine how best to respond if he comes here again, because we realize we can’t rely on the university to do so.”

Goluboff’s email reads, “These two trying events have caused much distress. I share in that distress, and I am devoting my full attention to these matters.”

Correction: The date of Kessler’s first visit was April 18, not April 20.

Updated 3:13pm with additional information from UVA law spokesperson Mary Wood.

Updated 4:38 to remove the name of a person incorrectly identified.