City Prosecutor Frank Forchione and four municipal court judges in Canton, Ohio, are willing to lessen, but not drop, charges against 15 strikers who were arrested for criminal trespassing when they blocked the main entrance to the Stark County District Library during a four-week strike.
Although the library has requested that the charges be dropped, Forchione told the September 15 Canton Repository that the court was willing to amend the charges to a minor misdemeanor of disorderly conduct out of compassion for the strikers.
“The situation was serious enough to call the police and for arrests to be made,” Forchione said. “They knew there would be consequences. Because they’ve settled their differences [with the library] is no reason to believe they should mandate what happens in the criminal justice system.”
The court agreed September 14 to a one-week delay in the trial of five strikers, to allow them more time to decide how to plea to the lesser charges.
Posted September 18, 2000.