GUILTY!

The January 30, 2020 Trial of The Seattle Six

The entire trial took about three hours, including sentencing. There were about 60 people in the courtroom: all the courtroom seats were occupied, with some people standing.

Judge Tsuchida, as he had done prior to trial, rejected all our defenses (necessity, religious freedom, being prosecuted under overly broad administrative rules rather than enacted law, the fact that we were arrested before Cantwell's office was closed, and the fact that we were engaged in an effort to petition our representative). Tsuchida even rejected any and all witnesses for the defense, stating that testimony from any of Cantwell's staff was irrelevant since they were not present during and after our arrest, despite all evidence indicating that staff were present during and after our arrest.

The judge got visibly upset when our lawyer once more requested reconsideration based on the facts in evidence. It was quite shocking. All our expert witnesses were denied, including Dr. Scott Allen who had flown to Seattle to testify to the severity and urgency of the situation immigrants face.

The judge then declared us "guilty," but not before telling us how sorry he was to reach this conclusion.

The federal prosecutor requested $100 fine (out of a possible $5,000), plus the mandatory and fixed fees of $30 for processing fee and $5 for court assessment.

The judge allowed us to each speak before he handed down his sentence. Gale, Graham, Gosar, & Yadlowsky spoke: these statements will be posted to the website.

After listening to us, Tsuchida then apologized once more, declared a sentence on each of us of a $0 (yes, zero) fine, and then apologized once more, this time for it being beyond his power to negate the $35 in mandatory total court fees. It was a rather stark example of cognitive dissonance on the part of the judge.