All the nagging questions left over from the trial are answered in Peter Watts’ latest post DVD Extras and Director Commentary. Was the video shown? What was on it? What did the jurors say in their public statements and in conversation with the author after the trial? Is there an appeal coming? A countersuit? How many have contributed to pay the legal costs? Most important, how is he standing up under the incredible strain?

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]

The jury returned a guilty verdict in the Peter Watts case on March 19 reports the Port Huron Times Standard:

Toronto author Peter Watts has been found guilty of assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.

Jurors returned the verdict today in St. Clair County Circuit Judge James Adair’s courtroom. He faces up to two years in prison when sentenced April 26.

Court records show that in the meantime the judge has continued Watts’ bond and he remains free pending sentencing. His case has been referred to the probation department for a report. And the court will review the prosecution’s request for an enhanced sentence under Michigan’s habitual offender statute.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, “in Michigan anyone convicted of more than one felony can have his or her sentence lengthened if requested by the prosecutor and agreed to by the court. Prisoners serving under the habitual offender statute cannot be paroled prior to their calendar minimum.”

The news coverage from the case hasn’t made it clear whether this law is being invoked based on the multiple felony charges from the border-crossing case or a previous conviction.

Peter Watts has posted detailed comments about the trial and verdict on his blog. He analyzes the statute the jury had to work with and the factual questions they had to resolve, then concludes:

Whether that’s actual noncompliance or simply slow compliance is, I suspect, what the jury had to decide. That’s what they did, and while I think they made the wrong decision I’m obviously not the most impartial attendee at this party. I still maintain I did nothing wrong; but as far as I can tell the trial was fair, and I will abide by its outcome.

Update 3/19/2010: Added link to Peter Watts’ comments about the trial and verdict.

Peter Watts’ case was submitted to the jury in mid-morning on March 18 following closing statements by defense and prosecution attorneys, reports the Port Huron Times Herald.

Watts himself testified on March 17 in the afternoon, as did the passenger in his car on the date of the border-crossing incident.

Watts said he was returning home to Toronto after helping a friend move. He had just paid his toll on the American side of the international bridge when he noticed a “flicker of motion” outside his car window. The motion, as other witnesses had testified, was a border officer attempting to wave his vehicle to a stop for a random inspection. Watts said the wave was “ambiguous.”

Watts said he stopped after his passenger, Marcus Kumala, told him to, and when he rolled down the window, the officer said: “‘When I go like this (Watts put up his hand), I’m not waving hello.'”

Watts said he responded “I guess we’re not in Canada, because in Canada that sometimes means hello.”

Times Herald reporter Lis Shepard’s article adds: Watts said he became irritated by the officers’ search of the car and bags in the back seat and got out of the vehicle because he wanted to know what was going on. Watts heard an officer twice order him to get back into the vehicle, but he didn’t immediately comply. An officer grabbed his arm and he pulled away in a “flinch response.” Watts said he was starting to get back in the vehicle when Officer Andrew Beaudry grabbed him and tore his shirt.

Watts said he was trying to comply with orders as things seemed to escalate.

“I was trying to get the hell back in the car,” he said. “It turns out I had company in the car.”

Watts said he remembers feeling leather in his hands, but doesn’t remember grabbing the officer and might have been trying to fend him off.

“My own recollection of this is kind of frenzied because I was under siege,” he said.

Update: 3/18/2010: Deliberations ended at 5:20 p.m. without a verdict. The jury is expected to resume work on March 19 at 9:00 a.m. According to the Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel blog, during the afternoon the jury requested to see the security camera video tape again, which was permitted. But the jury was not allowed to take the tape into the jury room to review and still-frame it, which the judge said would be conducting an investigation and the jury must make its decision based on evidence presented at trial. // Peter Watts’ first post on his blog since the trial began is brief and ends, “Nails are being bitten, ulcers are being eroded, and I am out of clean underwear.”

The second day of Peter Watts’ trial began with three U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers testifying about stopping Watts’ car and allegations that he assaulted and resisted Officer Andrew Beaudry.

Watts’ attorney Douglas Mullkoff has said the defense will call two witnesses and that Watts plans to testify.

Late last night the Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel blogger, who attended the first day of Peter Watts’ trial (March 16), posted an account of the opening statements plus details of the first witness’s testimony unavailable elsewhere. He followed up with some editorial comments, the most significant being:

…There is a video tape. It was not shown today, but both sides alluded to it. Mullkoff stated that if the prosecution did not introduce it, he would. Watts himself told me the tape is not very good, that he was but a “few pixels” in the frame. And here I thought we’d spent millions putting cameras all over the border.

Peter Watts, struck and pepper-sprayed by authorities during a border-crossing incident on December 6, then charged with assaulting a police officer, went on trial March 16 in Michigan’s St. Clair County Circuit Court. (News reports quoted a Port Huron police spokesman calling the alleged assault victim a “customs officer,” however I’ve yet to find a source that answers my question whether this was a Port Huron police officer or a member of a US federal law enforcement agency.)

The blogger at Have Satellite Truck, Will Travel  attended the first day of the trial. The morning was devoted to jury selection:

The repeating theme through the prosecution’s jury questions centered around border and airport security. Each prospective member was asked whether or not they crossed the Blue Water Bridge and or dealt with airport security and how that juror felt about the experience.

The defense’s repeating theme was asking anyone that crossed that bridge if they’ve ever been stopped by American officials on the American side of the line after they paid their toll. He asked most of the jurors one other thing that made sense to clarify their understanding of innocent until proven guilty. “With what you know about Mr. Watts right now would you vote not guilty?” All of them replied “yes.”

At this writing he hasn’t posted about afternoon, when the trial was expected to begin. There will be coverage by the Port Huron Times Herald as well, which so far has posted just a few lines about the morning.

Incidentally, St. Clair County court records show that when Watts was originally charged the prosecutor filed notice that he would seek “sentence enhancement” on grounds that Watts was allegedly a habitual offender:

The Michigan habitual offender statutes provide that individuals convicted of ‘a felony, an attempt to commit a felony, or both,’ who subsequently commit another felony, are subject to sentence enhancement.

However, I read the online records as saying the court granted a motion to quash this allegation in a preliminary hearing.

Watts reported earlier in the month there had also been a bench warrant issued by the judge for his arrest on March 5 when neither he nor his lawyer knew they were expected to appear in court, but the warrant has been withdrawn. It never ends, does it.

Canadian sf writer Peter Watts, whose arrest by border authorities immediately became an internet cause célèbre, appeared in St. Clair County (Michigan) District Court on December 22 for a preliminary examination before Judge John Monaghan.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer testified that Watts refused to follow commands and choked him, according to the Port Huron (MI) Times Herald:  

The officer, who has been with the agency for six years, said he attempted to get Watts out of the vehicle. In the process, Beaudry said the defendant grabbed either his uniform or jacket collar, choking him.

Beaudry said he used an elbow and leg strike to free himself and Watts exited the vehicle.

When the writer refused to follow orders to get on the ground, Beaudry said he sprayed him with pepper spray, and when Watts again didn’t respond to commands, he deployed his baton. He said Watts then got on the ground.

Judge Monaghan determined that Watts will face trial on a charge of assaulting and resisting arrest and bound his case over to the 31st Circuit Court of St. Clair County. A Circuit Court is the trial court with the broadest powers in Michigan, handling civil cases with claims of more than $25,000 and all criminal cases where the accused, if found guilty, could be sent to prison. If convicted, Watts faces up to two years in jail and a $2,000 fine.

People still question why Watts’ car was halted in the first place. During cross-examination, Watts’ defense lawyer “asked the officer why Watts was stopped for a vehicle inspection after he had paid to cross the bridge and enter Canada.” The news article doesn’t indicate that a direct answer to the question was given. Here is the reported response:

Beaudry said they were 10 to 15 feet past the toll booths doing the inspections, which aren’t done on a routine basis. He said it was the first vehicle they had stopped that shift. Beaudry wasn’t involved in stopping the vehicle for inspection.

[Via Steven H. Silver.]