PO Box 11331
Eugene, OR
97440
USA
Checks payable to John Zerzan
The following is an article about his sentencing:
Here is todays (10-14-99) Register Guard article on
Rob:
October 14, 1999
Sentence for rioter: 7 years in prison
By ERIC MORTENSON
The Register-Guard
Amid the fury of the June 18 riot in downtown Eugene,
Robert Lee Thaxton
<br>
threw a softball-sized rock that hit a police officer
in the upper right
<br>
chest and nearly broke his clavicle.
<br>
On Wednesday, a judge dropped the hammer on Thaxton.
<br>
<br>
The self-described anarchist was sentenced to seven
years and four months in
prison, a surprisingly stiff term that police and
prosecutors said should be
a clear signal that violent social protest won't be
tolerated.
"That's about as strong a message as you can send, I
would say"; said Steven
Skelton, chief deputy in the Lane County district
attorney's office. "In our
view, that's an appropriate message to send.
"Citizens have no more right to commit crimes during
demonstrations than
they do any other time" Skelton said. "This case
is not about the
expression of rights, it is about assaultive criminal
behavior."
Meanwhile, the attorney who defended Thaxton during
his trial, Charles
Porter, predicted that Thaxton's conviction will be
overturned on appeal. Hesaid the district attorney's
office did not disprove Thaxton's claim that he
was acting in self-defense when he threw the rock. But
Sgt. Larry Blackwell, the officer who was hit by the
rock, said the sentence imposed by Judge Mary Ann
Bearden ought to send a message not only to Thaxton,
but to other rioters who threw rocks, hurt officers
and damaged property but didn't get caught.
"The main thing I wanted was some justice,"
Blackwell said." I think I got
justice. That was the whole thing; people think we
were out for revenge, but
I just wanted some justice."
Thaxton, 39 and a native of Texas, was convicted Sept.
3 of second-degree
assault and rioting. The assault charge is a Measure
11 crime, carrying amandatory minimum sentence of 70
months - five years and 10 months in prison.
The surprise came in the sentence tacked on for the
rioting charge. Given
Thaxton's record - car theft, drug possession and a
minor theft charge - the
presumptive sentence under state guidelines was
probation
However, Bearden chose to depart from the guidelines
and sentenced Thaxton
to 18 months in prison on that charge. What's more,
she chose to make the
terms consecutive rather than fold in the rioting
sentence with the assault
term.
The total sentence adds up to 88 months, or seven
years and four months.
Thaxton could have fared worse. Blackwell said he
might have shot Thaxton if
he'd had time to react to the rock attack.
"To him and the rioters, violence was a trivial part
of this thing to them,"
Blackwell said. "It bothers me, it's pretty
distressing; officers are put in
situations where we could have used deadly force.
Being put in that position
is not a very pleasant one."
The June 18 riot sprang from an anarchists' protest
downtown against global
economic powers and other perceived oppressors. When
the event heated up,
rioters broke windows, pounded on cars, blocked
traffic and threw rocks and
bottles. Twenty people were arrested, eight officers
were hurt, and one
motorist who felt threatened hit an anarchist on the
head with a wrench.
Blackwell, supervisor of the department's Rapid
Deployment Unit, or RDU, had
been chasing another man just before Thaxton threw the
rock. The man darted
into a crowd, and Blackwell was hit on the helmet by a
thrown bottle. He
paused, then approached Thaxton.
"Here, the evidence was uncontroverted," said Porter,
the defense attorney.
"It says in the (police) report: The sergeant moved
first, then Rob threw
the stone. It shows who the aggressor was."
Thaxton testified during his trial that he was afraid
Blackwell would hit him, and that he tried to throw
the rock over Blackwell's head as a
diversion so he could escape. He also said he was
afraid to leave the scene
because he thought he would be singled out and beaten.
He admitted carrying the rock but said he had intended
to smash the window
of an unoccupied police car in retaliation for what he
thought was police
mistreatment of protesters.
The rock hit Blackwell in the chest with such force
that it bent his RDU
insignia into a V shape. The rock hit under his
clavicle and skittered up
over his shoulder. Although Blackwell was wearing a
protective vest, he was
badly bruised. He said a doctor told him that his
clavicle would have been
shattered if the rock hadn't hit his unit pin. "The
thing that bothered me the most was, when he testified
he had a smile on his face," Blackwell said. "He said
he was at the riot for four hours, he described it as
festive, and he was afraid to leave.
"It's an insult to me as well as other police officers
who were injured, and
any of the citizens who were attacked that day. In
reality, he was the erson out there trying to hurt
somebody."
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