Police arrested this woman protesting at Sen. Carper's house. Why the case didn't stick

Wilmington government's latest attempt to target protestors that regularly shout outside the residences of Delaware's U.S. Senators appears to have been built on confusion and misstatements by police and ended with a basic legal error by a city attorney working as a prosecutor.

In March, a Baltimore woman protesting the ongoing death of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the U.S.-armed Israeli military was arrested outside the home of Senator Tom Carper. She was charged with a violation of the city's noise ordinance, as well as resisting a police officer, a misdemeanor.

Court testimony and body camera footage show the resisting misdemeanor was built on shifting allegations by local police, who protesters feel have targeted the group due to their persistent presence outside the senators’ city residences.

The protest, typically composed of fewer than a dozen people, is a semi-frequent, weekend occurrence outside the senators' homes and the arrest is not the only time city authority has been aimed against those specific protesters.

City Council had last month sought to pass a new law specifically barring these protesters' efforts, but the council sponsor backed down after public backlash.

In a bizarre proceeding, the resisting arrest case came to a head a few weeks after that legislation was pulled.

The trial was unique because such cases hardly ever make it to trial and because it was tried in the court that typically handles traffic tickets, prosecuted by an attorney from Mayor Mike Purzycki's office − not a state prosecutor − and defended by a public defender who typically handles murder cases.

It also ended in an odd circumstance.

Readers might have seen fictionalized court scenes where a trial witness will dramatically point out the defendant in the courtroom, prompting an attorney to say something like, "Let the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant in the courtroom."

That’s not just for dramatic effect. It is a foundational requirement in criminal cases, which the city's attorney apparently forgot during the trial – along with establishing that the reported criminal conduct occurred in the city. And so, the case was dismissed before the judge rendered a verdict on the evidence the city presented.

But the evidence itself is worth talking about and, in the eyes' of the protesters, raises questions about whether the city was unfairly trying to intimidate them.

Why people have been protesting outside senators' homes

For months, small groups of protesters have spent weekend mornings posted up on sidewalks near the homes of Senators Chris Coons and Carper, as well as the residence of President Joe Biden just outside the city.

They refer to the protests outside the senators’ homes as "the wake-up call."

They shame the senators for not doing anything to end the death and starvation taking place in Gaza where the Israeli military has killed more than 38,000 people since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

Colleen Hylton is the protester who was arrested. She said the goal of the protests is ultimately to have a dialog with the powerful men who are tightly connected to President Joe Biden.

Hylton noted that Carper is "an older man," who likely isn't exposed to raw broadcasts of death and despair that have proliferated on social media and outside traditional U.S. media.

Previous protest: At State of the State speech, protesters draw attention to starvation, death in Gaza

So one day in March, they decided to change the pattern outside Carper’s home on Matson Run Parkway.

As night fell, they used a projector screen, as well as a suitcase-sized speaker, to display destruction in Gaza. They played explainer videos and interviews with Gazans, as well as videos depicting bombings.

The sound of bombs, airplanes and drones were played over the loudspeaker, imitating the hum of warplanes and drones that is a constant backdrop of life for Palestinians in Gaza.

"They were kind of forced to listen to and watch the things they are funding," Hylton said.

And around 8 p.m. that night, they were approached by a Wilmington Police Sgt. Michael Groark.

He told her the drum and handheld megaphone they had were not allowed, but "everything else is ok." He said the music they were playing on the speaker alongside the video was "fine," as long as it stays low, according to body camera footage obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal.

"The music is not loud. I didn't hear the music at first until I got out of my car,” Groark told Hylton.

The video then shows the officer debriefing his police colleagues on the scene. One asked specifically about the music accompanying the “movie” and Groark described it as "fine" if it stays “low."

Hylton said they stopped using the drum and the handheld megaphone, but continued to use the speaker, which she felt was in line with Groark’s warning, she said.

The arrest of protestors by Wilmington police

Later that night, Deshaun Ketler, the city's top patrol cop, arrived on the scene. Body camera footage shows him sitting in his patrol vehicle before exiting and grabbing what he later referred to as a mass arrest kit, which was a USPS box full of zip-tie handcuffs.

He approached the protesters and told them, "You guys were instructed not to use the drum. I'm going to have to seize that now." There is a small drum with the group, but the group reacted with confusion and told him they were not using a drum.

"I believe the last statement that was said: ‘I know you hear the drum; I hope you like it,’" Ketler told the group.

Facing Hylton, he insisted he heard the drum. He told her to step back multiple times and that he was going to "seize the drum." His hands are not visible on the camera. Hylton said at that point, he was reaching for her projector.

In an interview, she described her reaction as “visceral confusion," and that she didn't want her electronics seized. She said she wanted to “deescalate the situation."

“I’m like, ‘what are you doing grabbing this?” she said in the interview.

The body camera video shows her offering to show him on her phone what was playing through the speaker. He then tells her to step back multiple times. She tells him that it is her stuff.

"It is now seized unless you want to go to jail," Ketler told her in the footage.

Previous protest: State congressional officials not in support of growing protests seeking Gaza cease-fire

She tells him no and then he orders another officer to handcuff her while threatening her with “another” resisting charge.

Hylton asked if they could take a moment to sort out the confusion. She was then cuffed and loaded into a police cruiser. Other protesters tried to explain to Ketler that he likely heard bomb or drone noises coming from the speaker.

In an interview, Hylton said her interaction with Ketler was the product of confusion from him talking about a drum but going after her projector, which at the time was playing a blue background screen.

"He had no idea what he was talking about," Hylton said in an interview.

After Hylton was loaded up, Ketler begins to refer to the speaker as a "drum device" in a conversation with the protesters. He also told his colleagues he heard a drum bang. He also references a superior officer not on scene, saying that was “most likely what the major heard."

"She said she wasn't using the drum, which I clearly heard," Ketler told his colleagues.

She was taken downtown and held for two hours in what she described as a “panic attack.” She was charged with resisting a police officer and a violation of the city's noise ordinance governing the use of loudspeakers at night.

Ahead of the trial, the city offered to drop the resisting charge if she would plead to the noise ordinance violation, a $200 fine and other court fees, she said. She declined and said she felt she did nothing wrong.

"I certainly don't want to give the city $200," she added.

How this woman's trial played out

At trial, Hylton was represented by Alexandria Shaffer, a public defender in the Delaware Office of Defense Services. Shaffer typically works serious felony cases like murders but took this one on because of its "political" nature.

“She was protesting outside Senator Carper’s house, and I felt that based on what she was saying occurred with the police that she should not have been arrested,” Shaffer said in an interview.

When Hylton was arrested, her charging documents described her resisting misdemeanor as failing to turn down her speaker. In front of the judge, the city’s explanation for the charges was different.

"It feels like they were going to throw spaghetti at the wall to see what would stick," Hylton said in an interview a week after the trial.

Ketler was the only witness called by Assistant City Solicitor John Hawley, an attorney in Mayor Mike Purzycki's office who prosecuted the case.

Ketler testified that he charged her with resisting because she did not immediately unhand the object he sought to seize. As to the disconnect between him insisting he heard a drum and then seizing a speaker, he told the court he meant the speaker.

“So, the speaker was making the banging noise that was similar to a drum,” Ketler told the court.

He told the judge that he "misspoke" in threatening Hylton with an additional resisting charge.

Ketler also told the judge that he ordered Groark to go out and tell them not to use anything other than their voices. The city did not call Groark to the stand or play the body camera footage showing he did not make that specific warning.

After Hawley rested his case, Shaffer moved for the case to be tossed since Hylton was never identified, the evidence presented in court didn’t establish the conduct occurred in the city and the conduct described in court was different than the conduct outlined in her charging documents.

Justice of the Peace Magistrate Walter Newton, the judge, tossed the case based on the city's failure to identify the defendant or jurisdiction. He added he felt the city’s noise ordinance had been violated but made no comment on the resisting charge.

‘Internal stupidity’

Shaffer, the public defender, said the evidence didn’t support Hylton resisting.

“Generally, you see someone literally running from the police, pulling their arms away, throwing themselves to the ground,” Shaffer said. “It was confusion. She was told by another officer the loudspeaker was OK.”

Hylton called it “internal stupidity.”

“I had a suspicion that they have been instructed to make an example of our group in some way and this is how they were going to do it,” Hylton said.

In a written statement, a spokesperson for Sen. Chris Coons, whose home has also been targeted by protests, said he supports the rights of Delawareans to peacefully protest. Carper's office did not provide a statement as of Wednesday afternoon.

When asked for comment on whether the resisting charge was legitimate, neither Mayor Purzycki’s spokesperson nor the City Solicitor’s office commented on the charge.

In a written statement, Deputy City Solicitor Rosamaria Tassone-DiNardo did not mention the resisting charge, but emphasized that the judge’s finding was based on a “technical procedural error.”

“The court made it very clear that despite the dismissal of the case, the prosecution had proven that the defendant had violated the city’s noise ordinance,” Tassone-DiNardo wrote.

Hylton said the case wasn’t about simply enforcing the rules but rather intimidation by officers who are a constant presence at their protest.

She said that is based on how the case played out, as well as officers’ demeaning and intimidating interactions with protesters throughout their time at the senators' homes, including following them and taunting them.

“They don’t care about the rules. They are there to suppress us. Period.”

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Police arrested this woman protesting at Sen. Carper's house. Why the case didn't stick