THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030414
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A February courtroom struggle between federal marshals and a Baltimore man resulted from ``miscommunication,'' the man's lawyer said after a hearing Tuesday.
David Sawyer, 43, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor contempt and was freed after receiving credit for his 17 days served in North Carolina jails following his arrest.
Sawyer originally had been charged with two counts of assaulting a federal marshal but that charge was dropped under a plea agreement.
``I did not plan or intend to commit the act that I did,'' Sawyer told Judge Terrence W. Boyle before he was sentenced. ``I was moved by the situation.''
Sawyer was one of more than 20 people who rose during the trial of four peace activists, turned their backs on the proceedings and prayed and sang.
Jeffrey Starkweather, Sawyer's lawyer, said Tuesday that Sawyer's brief struggle with U.S. marshals was not a personal attack by either side but a heated exchange spurred by a misunderstanding.
Sawyer sat down during the demonstration because his back hurt, Starkweather said. Sawyer has a herniated disk that was classified at the time as a temporary partial disability and has since been diagnosed as permanent.
When Boyle ordered the courtroom cleared, Sawyer tried to leave the room, Starkweather said. Apparently a marshal grabbed Sawyer, and Sawyer pushed him off, Starkweather said.
Several marshals then got involved, handcuffed Sawyer and pulled him from the room as he shouted and struggled.
U.S. officials have contended that marshals were trying to keep order and used reasonable force when Sawyer resisted. Starkweather said Sawyer never heard a marshal's order and reacted to being grabbed. Witnesses' accounts have varied.
``People's memories of what happened . . . may not be totally accurate and may have something to do with their prior-belief system,'' Starkweather said.
The plea agreement, which addressed only Sawyer's standing up and praying, was ``a practical trade-off,'' Starkweather said. ``Neither party had to admit that their position on the facts was wrong.''
Sawyer, a musician and lecturer on civil rights and labor issues, asked for leniency so he could finish training that he has received because of his disability as a recording engineer.
His sentence includes six months of probation. by CNB