Mich. Court of Appeals hears case of preacher sentenced for criticizing judge

A politically active Baptist preacher from Benton Harbor, Rev. Edward Pinkney, remained under near constant house arrest on Tuesday as a crowd gathered at the Michigan Court of Appeals in Grand Rapids for oral arguments in appeals of his politically charged conviction on election fraud charges for which he was given probation and the 3-to-10-year prison sentence he received when a judge said he violated probation by writing an article for a Chicago newspaper.

“This is truly a miscarriage of justice,” said Michael Steinberg of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which is representing Pinkney in the matter of the probation violation. “In a constitutional democracy a person cannot be imprisoned for criticizing a judge in a newspaper article or expressing his religious beliefs.”

Pinkney is a well-known figure in economically devastated and segregated Benton Harbor, where he has organized community forums, participated in local government meetings and attended court as an observer regularly for years. He is a founder of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization which organized civil rights rallies after a deadly police chase in 2003 triggered anger and property damage.

In 2005, he organized a successful recall effort against a Benton Harbor city commissioner. But the recall was set aside after then-prosecutor James Cherry argued that Pinkney had violated campaign laws as part of the campaign.

He claimed that Pinkney offered people $5 to vote and that he handled absentee ballots of others, which is unlawful.

The first jury trial on these charges ended in a mistrial in March 2006, and Pinkney was convicted of the charges at a second trial in March 2007.

Pinkney’s attorneys have identified numerous problems with his trial. They argue that people were not allowed to observe jury selection, that a key witness that alleged that Pinkney had paid voters fabricated the story under pressure from the prosecution. They also argued that the law that makes holding someone else’s absentee ballot a felony is unfair.

Although Pinkney was given probation on the election-related charges, his probation was revoked in December 2008 when Berrien County Judge Dennis Wiley ruled that he’d violated the terms of his probation by writing an article in which he called Berrien County court officials and Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh “racist” “corrupt” and “dumb.” Wiley also ruled that the article’s discussion of the punishments God inflicts on those who are unjust constituted a true threat against the Berrien County judge.

Pinkney spent a year in prison before the ACLU successfully argued in the Michigan Court of Appeals for his release on bond pending appeal.

The court of appeals directed Judge Wiley to set the amount of his bond. Wiley ordered that Pinkney pay $10,000 bond and he also ordered that he be confined to his house and only be allowed to leave to attend church. The ACLU is in the process of appealing Pinkney’s house arrest in the Michigan Supreme Court.

Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur Cotter argued that the conditions of Pinkney’s probation were fair and that Pinkney’s statement that Berrien County Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh is corrupt is demonstrably untrue.

Cotter said the prohibition against demeaning and defamatory statements was made a condition of Pinkney’s probation because of past statements he had made that criticized public officials.

“In a probational order a judge can impose limits on constitutional rights,” he said.

Cotter said that this aspect of the case is “not a slam dunk.”

“I think the court could decide that even though he didn’t have any basis to make these claims that he has to be allowed to make these statements,” he said. “It’s not any easier to take Pinkney saying that about Judge Butzbaugh than it is having the [Ku Klux Klan] have a rally in our parking lot.”

Assistant Prosecutor Aaron Mead represented Berrien County on the appeal of the election fraud convictions.

Mead denied that Berrien County officials made any sort of deal to compel a witness to testify against Pinkney.

Mead said that to him, the most interesting part of the case raised by the defense is the issue over the handling of absentee ballots.

“There has not been much construing of these provisions of election law,” he said.

Handling someone else’s absentee ballot is a felony — though this is a little-known and little-used law.

During the appeal Pinkney’s attorney argued that the law was unjust because Pinkney was unaware that it was illegal to possess absentee ballots.

Mead argued that bad intent was not required — a person doesn’t need to know there is a law against handling an absentee ballot to be guilty of breaking that law. It is enough, he said, that the person knows that he is handling an absentee ballot.

Libby Hunter, a retired teacher from Ann Arbor, was among the estimated 100 Pinkney supporters who gathered in Grand Rapids for the appeal.

Hunter said that she first met Pinkney in 2001 when he came to a Green Party meeting to give a talk about unfair treatment of African Americans in the Berrien County criminal justice system.

Hunter said she offered to help Pinkney educate about social justice issues in Berrien County and ended up becoming a contributor for the website of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization.

“I am really involved,” she said, “because of how severe the racism and injustice is in Benton Harbor. He’s the most vocal person standing up down there.”

Pinkney attorney Tim Holloway was unavailable for an interview.