Exercising Right to Remain Silent Lands Video Journalist in Jail Indefinitely

KEENE, N.H., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Video journalists in Iran aren't the only ones at risk for due process violations according to libertarian blogger George Donnelly. That's what journalist Sam Dodson learned when he was arrested April 13 at Keene District Court for allegedly refusing to turn off a video camera in the lobby according to an April 14 Keene Sentinel article.

Dodson is being held indefinitely on $10,000 cash bail at Cheshire County Correctional Facility because he refuses to disclose his legal name to authorities per orders issued by Cheshire County District Court Judge Edward Burke on April 14 and 29 under docket number 09-CR-01825-1828.

"In both orders they refuse to schedule any more dates, including trial, in this matter. They will not see him for arraignment, they will not see him for preliminary hearings, and they will not see him for trial until he gives them his name and address," said Dodson's attorney Sharon Walker.

"The state has not even told me what they are charging me with at this point for over two weeks which Article 15 of the New Hampshire Bill of Rights clearly says that they are not to hold anyone until the charges are substantially and formally given to them," Dodson said from a jail pay phone May 1 when he called in to WKBK-AM's The Dan Mitchell Morning show.

"They were giving me motions where I couldn't respond to them because I didn't have pens or papers," said Dodson during an April 29th interview on talk radio show Free Talk Live.

Conditions in the jail are unsanitary said Dodson. "The toilet that has been stopped up for over 3 weeks now overflowed again and toilet paper, urine, feces starts flowing out onto the floor."

Dodson is on a hunger strike and has lost 20 pounds. "I'm going to eat when I'm free," he said on WKBK-AM.

Cheshire County Superior Court rejected Walker's writ of habeas corpus for Dodson but she refiled the writ with the New Hampshire Supreme Court on April 29.

Letters from Dodson are being published at freekeene.com.

About Sam Dodson

Sam's media company, Obscured Truth Network, educates viewers about the inner workings of government. His videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/ObscuredTruth. Sam is also a co-host of the syndicated talk radio show Free Talk Live.