77-year-old vows to fight for her free-speech rights
She was arrested after telling woman to try birth control
Laura Stevens was arrested and cited with trespassing in June at the Cache Valley Transit District Center after the incident. She said Saturday she will submit a written motion for dismissal to the Logan Municipal Court on Monday.
"I'm going to fight this for the rest of my life," said Stevens, a 77-year-old retired medical secretary. She turned down an offer last week to plead guilty to a lesser charge and parted with her lawyer for suggesting it.
"I said, 'I'm not taking a plea,"' Stevens said, "because I haven't done anything wrong."
Cache Valley Transit officials had banned Stevens from the bus system six months ago for making similar comments to the same woman. After she signed an agreement not to bother anyone, she was allowed to ride the buses again, said Todd Beutler, the transit district's general manager.
After the June incident she was banned from the bus system again, Beutler said. When she returned to the transit center a few days later, officials called police, who cited her with misdemeanor trespassing, Beutler said. He said the woman Stevens aimed her comments at told transit district officials she felt threatened.
But Stevens said the woman's children were throwing spit wads, running amok and otherwise misbehaving. Stevens said she wanted to let the woman know a birth control patch would keep her from having children for five years.
"If you can't control your kids a little bit better and you can't afford a car, why don't you try birth control?" Stevens asked.
Although the woman was Hispanic, Stevens said her ethnicity had nothing to do with her comments. Stevens, who once worked as an administrative assistant in district court, said she will represent herself.
Her former lawyer, Nathan Hult of Logan, said he withdrew as Stevens' attorney because she wanted him to pursue the case more aggressively. Although Hult said it is a complicated case, he said she has a good point — the transit district can't censor speech on public property.
"My understanding is the transit authority is funded by the public and is a quasi-public institution," Hult said. "Are you going to restrict the content of what one person says to another on public transit?"
Stevens has asked the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah to take the case. ACLU attorney Marina Lowe said the Salt Lake City office has not made a decision yet.
"She sent us a complaint, and we're reviewing it," Lowe said. "Certainly, we're interested in issues of free speech."
Stevens' trial is scheduled for Aug. 24.
E-mail: mikewennergren@yahoo.com
Recent comments
She has every right to voice her opinion on public property..I don…
kim | Aug. 12, 2007 at 11:38 a.m.
though she is rude and annoying there is no law against being rude…
mom | Aug. 12, 2007 at 10:06 a.m.
The DN posting any story about free speech is like Al Jazeera presenting…
coalinmyblood | Aug. 12, 2007 at 2:33 a.m.
