Next, Abbott Hoffman. Will the marshals take care of Mr. Hayden.
MR. FROINES: See you in jail.
THE COURT: We will now deal with the defendant Hoffman.
Specification 1: On September 26, during the opening statement by the Government, defendant Hoffman rose and blew a kiss to the jurors. Official Transcript, Page 9. 1 day
Specification 2: On October 23, well after the date of the Court's order sequestering the jury and ordering the jury that they may see no newspapers, the defendant Hoffman held up a newspaper so the jurors might see the headline in the courtroom. The following colloquy occurred:
"MR. SCHULTZ: If the Court please - -
MR. KUNSTLER: I would rather be directed.
MR. SCHULTZ: Before you direct him, if you are going to direct Mr. Kunstler, I would like to make one observation for the record. At 12:30 this morning or 12:30 early this afternoon, when the jury was adjourned, after the jury stood up, defendant Hoffman - - in fact, he had the same article that he has in front of him there - -
MR. HOFFMAN: Yes, I was going to show it to - -
MR. SCHULTZ: He held up the newspaper for them to see and - -
MR. HOFFMAN: It ain't a newspaper. It is the Berkeley Tribe and doesn't tell lies, so it isn't a newspaper.
THE COURT: I wonder if you would ask your client - - you know, when I was out there trying cases, if my clients started to talk when another lawyer was speaking, Mr. Kunstler, I told him to remain quiet.
Now, I can direct him to remain quiet. The United States Attorney was speaking to the Court. He is entitled to be heard just as you are entitled to be heard. We are not running a circus. This happens to be a court- -even though there are those who don't share views.
MR. KUNSTLER: I would suggest, your Honor, then, that Mr Hoffman be permitted to respond and not be interrupted --
THE COURT: I will not hear from your clients.
MR. HOFFMAN: I was just trying to be helpful, your Honor.
THE COURT: I will not hear from your client. I will let Mr. Schultz finish his observation." Official Transcript, Pages 3,866-67. 7 days
Specification 3: On October 28, at the close of the session, the defendant Hoffman refused to rise in the customary manner when directed to do so by the marshal. Official Transcript, Pages 4,618-19. 1 day
Specification 4: On October 29, the following colloquy occurred:
"THE COURT: I will ask you to sit down, sir. You have a lawyer to speak for you. I haven't been told that you represent all of these defendants, either.
MR. HOFFMAN: We have been told that they are defendants, too.
MR. FORAN: May the record show that that was the defendant Hoffman who made that - -
THE COURT: Yes; yes.
MR. FORAN: The previous statement was made by the defendant Dellinger.
THE COURT: The last statement was made by the defendant Abbie Hoffman.
MR. HOFFMAN: I don't use that last name anymore."
THE COURT: That grieved me sorely, I say, off the record, when he said that. I didn't think I deserved that so early in this case.
"THE COURT: Will you remain quiet." Official Transcript, Page 4,639. 7 days
Specification 5: "At the close of the morning session on October 29, the defendant Hoffman refused to rise in the customary manner. Official Transcript, Pages 4,728-29. 1 day
Specification 6: On October 29, when the Court was compelled to call a recess during the afternoon session, the defendant Hoffman once more refused to rise in the customary manner. Official Transcript, Page 4,763. 1 day
Specification 7: On October 30, at the beginning of the court session, the defendant Hoffman refused to rise in response to the marshal's direction. Official Transcript, Page 4,801 1 day
Specification 8: On October 30, when the Court was compelled to deal appropriately with Mr. Seale, Mr. Hoffman engaged in the following:
"MR. SEALE: The Judge is not-he is not trying to give you no fair trial. That's what you are. You are lying. You know exactly what you are.
MR. HAYDEN: Now they are going to beat him, they are going to beat him.
MR. HOFFMAN: You may as well kill him if you are going to gag him. It seems that way, doesn't it?
THE COURT: You are not permitted to address the Court, Mr. Hoffman. You have a lawyer.
MR. HOFFMAN: This isn't a court. This is a neon oven.
MR. FORAN: That was the defendant Hoffman who spoke.
THE COURT: Let the record show that the defendant Hoffman spoke." Official Transcript, Page 4,846. And very shortly thereafter he continued in the following interchange:
"MR. HAYDEN: I was not addressing the jury. I was trying to protect Mr. Seale. The man is supposed to be silent when he sees another man's nose being
smashed?
MR. HOFFMAN: The disruption started when these guys got into overkill. It is the same thing as last year in Chicago, the same exact thing.
THE COURT: Mr. Hoffman, you are directed to refrain from speaking. You are ordered to refrain from speaking." Official Transcript, Page 4,847.
After this interchange the Court determined that a recess would be appropriate. When the Court left the bench the defendant Hoffman refused to rise in the customary manner. Official Transcript, Page 4,849. 2 months
Specification 9: On October 30, after a brief recess the Judge returned to the bench in the afternoon and the defendant Hotlman again refused to rise in the customary manner. Official Transcript, Page 4,853. 1 day
Specification 10: On November 12, the defendant Hoffman and the other defendants openly laughed at the Judge while he was making a ruling. The following colloquy occurred:
"THE COURT: That observation will remain on the record and this loud laughter has got to cease.
MR. HOFFMAN: Mr. Weinglass, how many years do you have to laugh at?
MR. WEINGLASS: I would further want to
MR. HOFFMAN: I am talking to my lawyer." Official Transcript, Pages 6,257-59. 7 days
Specification 11: On November 26, after the Court made a ruling the following colloquy occurred:
"THE COURT: I decide each motion on its own papers, sir, and I am not aware of any witnesses that the Government has sought to bring here. I don't know whether --
MR. HOFFMAN: We are very confused about this. Is the Government going to present our defense as well as our prosecution?
THE COURT: Have you gotten that -- what is the name of that defendant speaking?
MR. HOFFMAN: Just Abbie. I don't have a last name, Judge. I lost it. We can't respect the law when it's tyranny.
THE COURT: Are you able to hear the defendant Hoffman speaking?
MR. HOFFMAN: Abbie.
THE REPORTER: Yes, sir." Official Transcript, Page 8,801 1 month
Specification 12: On December 15, the defendant Hoffman openly laughed at the Court during its ruling on a motion, and admitted it.
"MR HOFFMAN: I was laughing." Official Transcript, Page 11,181 14 days
Specification 13: On December 30, while the defendant Hoffman was testifying on cross-examination, the following colloquy occurred:
"THE COURT: I will admonish the jury the United States Attorney - -
THE WITNESS: Wait until you see the movie.
THE COURT: if it is required that he be admonished.
THE WITNESS: Wait until you see the movie.
THE COURT: And you be quiet.
THE WITNESS: Well the movie's going to be better.
THE COURT: Did you get that last, Miss Reporter?
THE REPORTER: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: The last words spoken by the witness on the stand." Official Transcript, Page 13,013. 14 days
Specification 14: On January 9, the defendant Hoffman openly laughed at the Court again. The following colloquy occurred:
"MR. KUNSTLER: Oh, your Honor, there is a certain amount of humor when talking about a bathroom - -
THE COURT: Oh, I know that is your favorite reply.
MR. HOFFMAN: I laughed, too." Official Transcript, Page 14,824. 7 days
Specification 15: On January 14, there was again an excessive and obnoxious outburst of laughter from the table of the defendants. The following colloquy occurred:
"MR. KUNSTLER: I just don't want to get thrown in my chair by the marshals so I will have to sit down, but I just don't think it is fair to do that.
MR. HOFFMAN: I laughed anyway.
THE COURT: Will you be quiet, Mr.- -
MR. HOFFMAN: I laughed. It wasn't Jerry, it was me.
THE COURT: Did you get that, Miss Reporter?
MR. HOFFMAN: At that ruling. I laughed. He didn't.
THE COURT: That was Mr. Dellinger.
MR. KUNSTLER: That was not Mr. Dellinger.
MR. SCHULTZ: Your Honor, that was Mr. Hoffman.
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor
MR. SCHULTZ: That was the defendant Hoffman speaking.
MR. HOFFMAN: I was him." Official Transcript, Page 15,587. 1 day
Specification 16: On January 16, the defendant Hoffn-ran interjected the following comment into the proceedings, in an attempt to make a mockery of THE COURT:
"THE COURT: I won't ask you to do it. Move the lectern over, Mr. Marshal. I didn't ask you to do it. I asked the marshal to do it. We don't punish a man before he is punishable.
MR. HOFFMAN: We don't either. We don't either. We don't either." Official Transcript, Page 16,263. [See page 128] Withdrawn
Specification 17: On January 21, the defendants were conducting a conference with one of their staff "members" at the defense table, while Mr. Foran was attempting to speak. The co-conference was loud enough to cause the following disturbance:
"THE MARSHAL: Excuse me, Mr. Foran. Will you take your seat at the table, please.
MR. HOFFMAN: We're organizing the defense.
THE MARSHAL: Take your seat. Now. come on.
MR. HOFFMAN: She's on the staff.
THE MARSHAL: Mr. Kunstler, talking is not I'm asking him to take his seat.
MR. KUNSTLER: I don't know what he was doing. He said he was talking to his wife.
MR. HOFFMAN: We are talking in a low voice. He didn't even hear.
THE COURT: The defendant's place at the trial is at the defendants' table.
MR. HOFFMAN: We were talking
A DEFENDANT: Let our staff sit at the table, everything would be all right.
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor, he was sitting, just talking quietly with his wife, who is part of our staff.
THE COURT: I know. I know what he's doing. I require - - the rule of this court is that the defendants sit at the defendants' table.
MR. HOFFMAN: How do we organize the trial?
THE COURT: I order Mr. Hoffman to sit at the defendants' table.
MR. HOFFMAN: OK. We can just talk from here. Why don't you go out and talk to Paul Krassner and get the defense together.
I don't see how we can prepare the defense. We have to sit here seven days- -" Official Transcript, Pages 16,791-92. 42 days
Specification 18: On January 23, while Mr. Foran and Mr. Dellinger were engaged in a colloquy, Mr. Hoffman inserted the following remarks:
"MR. FORAN: Your Honor, in the American system there is a proper way to raise such issues and to correct them.
MR. DELLINGER: That was the proper way with Fred Hampton, wasn't it?
MR. FORAN: And correct them, your Honor, by the proper governmental system, and there is a proper way to do that.
MR. HOFFMAN: Correction the way you handled the war in Viet Nam, the same proper - -" Official Transcript, Page 17,376.
Shortly thereafter during the same incident a discussion ensued concerning the propriety of Mr. Kunstler's press conferences. Mr. Hoffman again interjected his comments. It's reported as follows:
"THE COURT: Yes, there is a law against a lawyer participating - -
MR. KUNSTLER: No, there isn't. The rule is quite clear, and we know what it is.
THE COURT: There is a law against - -
MR. HOFFMAN: The Judge had an interview in Time Magazine.
THE COURT: A lawyer on television discussing the case.
MR. KUNSTLER: Let's have what I said that was false. That was the accusation.
THE COURT: I will ask you both to sit down.
MR. HOFFMAN: The Judge gave an interview to Time Magazine.
THE COURT: And I will instruct Mr. Weinglass to continue with the direct examination of this witness." Official Transcript, Page 17,379. 14 days
Specification 19: On January 30, at the conclusion of the court's session, the Court asked the parties and attorneys to stay after the jury had been excused. The Court then broached the subject of the propriety of the public speeches given by the defendants. While this discussion was going on Mr. Hoffman again inserted his remarks gratuitously. The incident is reported as follows:
"THE COURT: I am not going to be put on the griddle about it. Now you are the lawyer. You are one of the lawyers for the defendants. And I think it is wholly inappropriate for defendants in a criminal case to make the kind of speech that was made and the matter of bail goes beyond mere protection for the Government that the defendant appear. Read the book.
MR. WEINGLASS: But I do not think the matter of bail should be held over their heads in order to reduce the amount of public speaking they are doing.
THE COURT: Oh, I don't - -
MR. HOFFMAN: I will be in Miami on Sunday afternoon with the same speech.
THE COURT: That expression - - did you hear that? I haven't heard either lawyer for the defendants try to quiet their clients during this trial when@ they spoke out, not once in four and a half months, not once." Official Transcript, Page 19,094-19,095. 7 days
Specification 20: On April 2, the Court had determined that argument on a particular question had been completed. The Court admonished Mr. Kunstler several times to sit down and desist arguing. The Court had previously ordered the defendants and their attorneys not to mention the fact that the former Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark, had been excluded by order of the Court. Mr. Hoffman made several comments after the Court had indicated argument was completed, and he violated the Court's order concerning the Attorney General. The record states:
"THE COURT: You sit down, sir, or we will arrange to have you put down.
MR. HOFFMAN: Are you going to gag the lawyers, too?
A VOICE: Chained to the chair
MR. HOFFMAN: You don't have to gag the jury, because they haven't been able to see our witnesses.
THE COURT: That was Mr. Hoffman that made that remark, Miss Reporter.
MR. HOFFMAN: The past Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark Official Transcript, Page 19,159.
Later in the day, the defendant Hoffman interrupted the Court to make the following sarcastic remark:
"THE COURT: All I have to repeat to you, Mr. Kunstler, is that I know you practice in the Southern District of New York. I have practiced there a lot as a lawyer before all of the then District Judges. I never saw - -
MR. HOFFMAN: When it was under British control." Official Transcript, Page 19,199-200. 2 days
Specification 21: On April 4, during the cross-examination of the witness Phillips, Mr. Kunstler was examining the witness concerning the witness' concept of how hippies dress. During that incident, Mr. Hoffman got up and danced around, lifting his shirt and baring his body to the jury, and engaged in antics designed to make light of the testimony of the witness. The incident is reported as follows:
"Q You are the first one that hasn't identified him. (Hoffman.) This is Mr. Hoffman over here. (There was laughter in the courtroom.)
THE COURT: Let the record show that Mr. Hoffman stood up, lifted his shirt up, and bared his body in the presence of the jury - -
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor, that is Mr. Hoffman's way.
THE COURT: - - dancing around.
(There was laughter in the courtroom.)
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor, that is Mr. Hoffman's way.
THE COURT: It is a bad way in a courtroom."
* * *
"Q Mr. Phillips, my question before we had the little colloquy had to do with - -
THE COURT: It was not a little colloquy, that was taking Mr. Hoffman to task for improper conduct in the courtroom.
BY MR. KUNSTLER:
Q Before Mr. Hoffman was taken to task for improper conduct in the courtroom, I asked you whether he was in hippie dress.
MR. HOFFMAN: That would make it hippie dress, naked." Official Transcript, Page 19,622-24. 4 days
Specification 22: On April 4, at the end of the session, the Court indicated that it had determined to revoke the bail of the defendant Dellinger. In the uproar which followed this decision, Mr. Hoffman made the following remarks:
MR. SCHULTZ: Excuse me, your Honor, you are saying "April." I think you mean "February."
THE COURT: We will begin with 22.
MR. SCHULTZ: And the prior charge as well. I think you erroneously used the month April instead of February. Also in No. 21.
THE COURT: I have February 4 in each case.
MR. SCHULTZ: No. 20 also. I believe your Honor used April.
THE COURT: I don't know how that happened.
MR. SCHULTZ: I think you used April inadvertently.
THE COURT: No. 20 was February 2.
MR. SCHULTZ: Thank you, sir.
THE COURT: No. 21 was February 4. We have covered that. It refers to February 4.
"Q Mr. Phillips, my question before we had the little colloquy - -" - - we have gone over that.
"MR. HOFFMAN: That would make it hippie dress, naked." That was the end of that Official Transcript, Page 19,622-24.
I'm going to go back to Item 22 here. On February 4, at the end of the session, the Court indicated that it had determined to revoke the bail of the defendant Dellinger. In the uproar which followed this decision Mr. Hoffman made the following remarks:
"MR. HOFFMAN: You are a disgrace to the Jews. You would have served Hitler better. Dig it."
* * *
"MR. HOFFMAN: I heard you haven't let anybody free in four years. That's right, stop me."
"MR. HOFFMAN: They are all our cases. We are bailing that guy out and every guy that gets arrested.
"MR. HOFFMAN: No spectators while they put them in jail." Official Transcript, Pages 19,781-82. 5 days
Specification 23: On February 5, after the Court had decided not to reinstate Mr. Dellinger's bail, Mr. Hoffman made the following remarks in the outburst which ensued:
"MR. HOFFMAN: Your idea of justice is the only obscenity in the room. You schtunk."
S-c-h-t-u-n-k. I can't understand the following words.
They are spelled as follows:
"MR. HOFFMAN: Vo den? Shanda fur de goyem? Huh."
I can understand the last.
"MR. HOFFMAN: Obviously it was a provocation. That's why it has gone on here today because you threatened him with the cutting of his freedom of speech in the speech he gave in Milwaukee.
THE COURT: Mr. Marshal, will you ask the defendant Hoffman to - -
MR. HOFFMAN: This ain't the Standard Club.
THE MARSHAL: Mr. Hoffman - -
MR. HOFFMAN: Oh, tell him to stick it up his bowling ball. How is your war stock doing, Julie? You don't have any power. They didn't have any power in the Third Reich either.
THE COURT: Will you ask him to sit down, Mr. Marshal?
THE MARSHAL: Mr. Hoffman, I am asking you again to shut up.
MR. RUBIN: Gestapo.
MR. HOFFMAN: Show him your .45. Show him a .45. He ain't never seen a gun." Official Transcript, Pages 19,801-02.
"MR. HOFFMAN: Mies van der Rohe was a Kraut, too." Official Transcript, Page 19,803.
"MR. HOFFMAN: You know you cannot win the fucking case. The only way you can is to [put] us away for contempt. We have contempt for this court, and for you, Schultz, and for this whole rotten system. That's the only justice. That is why they want this because they can't prove this fucking case." Official Transcript, Pages 19,803-4.
* * *
"MR. HOFFMAN: You put him in jail because you lost faith in the jury system. I hear you haven't lost a case before a jury in 24 tries. Only the Krebiozen people got away. We're going to get away, too. That's why you're throwing us in jail now this way.
Contempt is a tyranny of the court, and you are a tyrant. That's why we don't respect it. It's a tyrant." Official Transcript, Page 19,814.
"MR. HOFFMAN: The judges in Nazi Germany ordered sterilization. Why don't you do that, Judge Hoffman?" Official Transcript, Page 19,815.
"MR. HOFFMAN: We should have done this long ago when you chained and gagged Bobby Seale. Mafia controlled pigs. Racist." Official Transcript, Page 19,816.
"MR. HOFFMAN: No, I won't shut up, I ain't an automaton like you. I don't want to be a tyrant and I don't care for a tyrannical system. Best friend the blacks ever had, huh. How many blacks are in the Drake Towers? How many are in the Standard Club? How many own stock in Brunswick Corporation? Official Transcript, Pages 19,816-17.
And later in the day Mr. Hoffman, at the end of the session, made the additional comment:
"MR. HOFFMAN: It was every man. We'll see you at the Standard Club, Julie." Official Transcript, Page 19,877. 6 days
Specification 24: On February 6, the defendant Hoffman attempted to hold the court up to ridicule by entering the courtroom in judicial robes. Official Transcript Page 19,888.
While the transcript does not reflect it, he remained in those robes for a considerable period of time before the jury. Later, he removed the robes, threw them on the floor of the courtroom, and wiped his feet on them. 7 days
The court finds - -
Does any lawyer want to speak for Mr. Hoffman?
MR. WEINGLASS: If the Court please, I repeat the motion with respect to lack of jurisdiction and lack of authority.
THE COURT: I will consider that you made the same point.
MR. WEINGLASS: The only other matter which I want to point out to the court deals with Item No. 16 and I point it out for one very specific but limited purpose.
In this particular incident the Court noted that on January 16 a marshal was attempting to move this lectern, I think a movie was being set up, and Mr. Hoffman at that time rose from his chair and attempted to assist the marshal in moving the lectern. The Court advised Mr. Hoffman he didn't have to do that because - - I think the direct quote is "We don't punish a man in the court until he is punishable."
And I think the Court was engaging there in a witticism. I remember I myself laughed. I thought it was a quite funny remark.
When the Court made that funny remark, I think every one in the courtroom laughed and then Mr. Hoffman replied to that witticism in kind for he said, I believe something to the effect that "We don't either." - -
Now for the Court's humor which got a laughing response there was, of course, no punishment. For Mr. Hoffman's response to the Court's humor he will have to, of course, serve time in jail, and I think this incident more than any indicates how the Court can pluck out of this transcript items which have occurred where in this one particular case the Court itself was involved together with Abbie Hoffman in doing something that I think we have all tried to do in the course of this trial which lasted over five months and that is at times inject humor. Your Honor has done it. You have gotten laughing responses. I have laughed. Other people have laughed.
When Abbie Hoffman attempts even while the laughter for the Court is dying down to inject his own humor, he is going to be sent to jail and punished for it. And I just point it out.
THE COURT: While I do not agree with your interpretation of Item 16, 1 will take it out.
I will hear from Mr. Hoffman if he wants to be heard.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: Well, I think
THE COURT: If you will be respectful.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: Respectful? My six-year-old daughter yesterday sent me a note. She said perhaps when the judge changes his glasses he doesn't have a pair that enables him to see what the defendants are all about.
The use of the word "respect" is quite different to me. I called this place a neon oven. A neon oven in a stainless steel cuckoo nest, designed by your friend Mies van der Rohe. I might add he died right after he built this, it kind of killed him, building a building in which he had to put men away in prison and perhaps into death houses.
THE COURT: I will let you speak to the specifications, sir.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: You have always referred to -they were my remarks-you said that we did not pay tribute to the highest court in the land, but to us the Federal Court is not the highest court in the land.
THE COURT: I didn't hear myself say that.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: Oh, yes, you did. You always call it the highest court in the land. Sure.
THE COURT: The Supreme Court is.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: The defendants have no respect for the highest court in the land. It ain't high.
THE COURT: I will have to ask you to sit down.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: I ain't going to sit down. I ain't going to sit down. I am going to fight for my right to speak in the same way that I fought for my right to speak and assemble in Lincoln Park.
THE COURT: You are not going to continue your insults and besides you are making statements - -
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: We don't consider it the highest. We consider the people the highest court in the land.
THE COURT: You may speak to these specifications.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: You have said repeatedly you have said this afternoon that we do not respect the dignity and decorum of this court.
THE COURT: That is right.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: But when the decorum is oppression, the only dignity that free men have is the right to speak out. Furthermore, you said we do not honor your authority, but we recognize that authority as illegitimate in the same way that the authority that decided the political decisions in that heavy week in August in 1968 was illegitimate and did not represent the will and the desire of the people.
So we cannot respect an authority that we regard as illegitimate. We can only offer resistance to such illegitimate authority.
What are you guys getting nervous about?
Furthermore, you have asked us to respect the law but this is a law - - I sat there on the witness stand and Mr. Schultz said, "What were you wondering?" as he quoted from my book and speeches. "What were you wondering that night when you stood before a building?"
And I said, "Wonder? Wonder? I have never been on trial for wondering. Is that like a dream?"
He said, "Yes, that's like a dream."
And I have never been on trial for my dreams before. How can I respect the highest court in the land or a federal government that puts people on trial for their dreams. I can show it no respect.
THE COURT: You took the Fifth Amendment, though, didn't you? You took the privilege of the Fifth Amendment?
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: Which Fifth Amendment? Where did I take the Fifth? No, I didn't. I didn't take it because I wasn't ashamed and that's why we put on all of those witnesses that Mr. Foran said oh, evil people running for pope.
THE COURT: Oh, that is right. You decided to answer the question. I guess that was it.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: And I said - -
THE COURT: Have you got anything more to say with regard to the specifications?
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: No. 18 where I said we cannot respect when we wanted to bring John Sinclair in here, a man who is right now serving ten years for two cigarets of marijuana. I said that we cannot respect a law, a law that is tyranny, and a law that is trying us, and the courts are in a conspiracy of tyranny, and when the law is in tyranny, the only order is insurrection and disrespect, and that's what we showed, and that's what all honorable men of free will will show. That's it.
A VOICE: Right on.
THE COURT: Mr. Clerk, the court finds the defendant Hoffman guilty of direct contempt in the presence of - -
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: I didn't say - - I might say that a lot of those statements I didn't say, but maybe some of the other people that said them said it, but it's O.K., it don't matter.
THE COURT: Direct contempt - -
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: We are proud of what we say.
THE COURT: direct contempt of the court with respect to the specifications mentioned.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: You forgot that I wiped my feet on the robes because I didn't see a black robe of justice. I saw a white robe with a hood on it.
THE COURT: Will you sit down. Yes, I was kind to you. I said you put the robe on the floor.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: You're kind to us. You said you were kind to Bobby Seale when you chained and gagged him. You said, "I am doing this for your own good, Mr. Seale, in order to insure a fair and proper trial for you and the other defendants."
THE COURT: Mr. Marshal, have that man sit down.
DEFENDANT HOFFMAN: Sure. I can say it seated.
THE COURT: Mr. Clerk, as I said before, the court finds the defendant Hoffman guilty of direct contempt in the presence of the court and in respect to the specifications which I shall mention here and designate the punishment in connection with each item:
Specification 1, 1 day in the custody of the Attorney General of the United States or his authorized representative; Specification 2, the defendant will be committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States or his authorized representative for a period of 7 days; Specification 3, 1 day; Specification 4, 7 days; Specification 5, 1 day; Specification 6, 1 day; Specification 7, 1 day; Specification 8, 2 months; Specification 9, 1 day; Specification 10, 7 days; Specification I 1, 1 month; Specification 12, 14 days; Specification 13, 14 days; Specification 14, 7 days; Specification 15, 1 day; Specification 17, 42 days; Specification 18, 14 days; Specification 19, 7 days; Specification 20, 2 days; Specification 21, 4 days; Specification 22, 5 days; Specification 23, 6 days; Specification 24, 7 days. All these sentences are to be cumulative and consecutive for the defendant Hoffman.
MR. WEINGLASS: Your Honor, at this time - - I haven't done it before, but I would like to ask bail pending appeal of contempt for not only Mr. Hoffman but the other two defendants, Mr. Davis and Mr. Hayden.
THE COURT: It will be denied because these are direct contempts in the presence of the court and any appeal would be in the opinion of the court frivolous.
Contempt Page