Five people charged in 2020 Graham protests were supposed to appear Wednesday in Alamance County District Court, but after continuances and motions, only one had his day in court.
Kristofer Wayne Loy, 27, was convicted of misdemeanor second-degree trespass and resisting a public officer, also a misdemeanor, over a Nov. 16 protest outside the Alamance County Detention Center and sentenced to a $100 fine and court costs.
Three protesters had already been arrested that night at the Alamance County Historic Courthouse on charges of disrupting an Alamance County Board of Commissioners meeting. It was a little more than two weeks after an Oct. 31 march that ended with Graham Police and Alamance County sheriff’s deputies disbursing the crowd with pepper spray.
Loy had been outside the courthouse on Nov. 16, but followed a group of what he estimated was about 25 protesters to the jail for what he called “jail support."
Outside the jail, Alamance County sheriff’s deputies told the protesters to get out of the parking lot and onto a strip of grass between the parking lot and Pine Street, said Chief Deputy Cliff Parker in his testimony. Parker said the order was to keep them from blocking the jail doors, which are also the access to the magistrate's office. Parker estimated the crowd at about 50.
But Loy, carrying an American flag, kept asking Parker and other deputies why he had to get out of the parking lot. He got off the asphalt and onto the grass with the others, but stepped back onto the asphalt several times and kept asking why protesters could not be in the parking lot.
“I saw myself as being arrested for questioning why they were forcing us onto what I consider an unsafe piece of ground,” Loy said.
A short video entered into evidence showed Parker with several other deputies walking toward the shouting, cursing crowd. A deputy, who seemed to be telling someone to get off the asphalt in the roughly 30-second video, approached Loy and said, “Don’t let the flag touch the ground." Then deputies took Loy’s arms from behind and arrested him.
Defense lawyer Jamie Paulen questioned whether deputies treated Black Lives Matter protesters differently than others. Deputies testified they hadn’t had other groups protesting outside the jail. She also questioned whether the sheriff’s office had the right to exclude the crowd from the entire parking lot of the public building since they were nowhere near the door, weren’t violent and not trying to disrupt business at the jail.
Judge Lunsford Long disagreed, saying each crowd and situation is different and law enforcement has the authority to draw the line where it judges best. Long found Loy guilty on both counts.
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow on Twitter @TNIGroves.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Alamance County jail protester found guilty, sentenced to pay $100 fine
