The Montgomery County District Attorney said late Tuesday the current felony charges against four people who tore down a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee are 'not prosecutable' at this time due to legal errors in warrants and affidavits.
The Lee statue was toppled from a pedestal in front of the city's Lee High School some time Monday evening, as hundreds of protesters gathered a few miles away in downtown Montgomery.
In an emailed statement, DA Daryl Bailey left the door open for prosecution in the incident but said he would await further word from the city and the Montgomery Public School Board.
"I am not making any determination as to the rightfulness or wrongfulness of these charges being filed," Bailey said."I have advised the Montgomery Police Department that if the City of Montgomery and the Montgomery Public School Board desire to continue prosecution of these individuals that my office stands ready to advise on how these errors can be corrected."
Jeremy Selmar, 28, Jonathan Williams, 34, Joe Pernell, 35, and 28-year-old Maya Holley were each charged with first-degree criminal mischief, a Class C felony, in connection to the statue toppling. According to state law, a person commits the crime of first-degree criminal mischief if damages to property exceed $2,500.
More: George Floyd protests return public spotlight to removal of Confederate monuments across South
As hundreds gathered just a few miles away on Dexter Avenue to protest police brutality and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Lee's fall coincided with the dismantling of a Confederate memorial obelisk in downtown Birmingham. Protesters and citizens across the nation have demanded Confederate memorials, built to commemorate a government resting on the principle of white supremacy, be taken down in the wake of Floyd's killing.
"This decision should not be seen or interpreted as endorsing citizens taking the law into their own hands," Bailey said Tuesday night. "There is a process when trying to settle grievances with our Government and those should be litigated in our Courts not our streets."
Bailey released the lengthy statement Tuesday night after Montgomery activists mounted a campaign to lobby law enforcement officials to drop the felony charges.
More: Arrests made after Robert E. Lee High statue removed amid downtown protests
The Montgomery Bail Out Fund, established earlier this spring to post bail for county inmates amid the coronavirus pandemic, posted Tuesday morning all four had been bailed out. The Bail Out Fund was one of several groups and local activists to encourage people to call District Attorney Daryl Bailey's office and ask them to drop the charges against the four.
“These statues and monuments should have been removed long ago and these activists just did what the city hasn’t had the courage to do,” said Ryan Dalton, a teacher at Sidney Lanier High — another Montgomery public school named after a Confederate leader.
The Montgomery Public School district on Tuesday announced the Lee statue had been moved to storage, though its pedestal bearing Lee's name was still standing outside the school. On Tuesday, it was repainted to cover up graffiti. Lashinda Carter, 42, was charged with third-degree criminal mischief about midnight in connection to the graffiti, Capt. Saba Coleman said.
Any decisions made about the statue or the name of the school will be left to the school board, city spokesman Griffith Waller said.
Protesters on Monday night voiced strong opinions about Confederate memorials and statues.
"Montgomery full of slave trophies,” one man said, before saying the memorials "had to come down."
The statue was unveiled in 1908, a commemoration of a white supremacist government defeated 43 years earlier. The statue was one among a spike of Confederate memorials built across the country in the early 1900s during a period of intense racial tensions in the country. A second wave of Confederate memorials were commissioned during the later Civil Rights Movement.
More: More than 1,700 Confederate symbols remain in public spaces, SPLC reports
It was initially placed at the corner of Madison Terrace and Winona Avenue. Later it was moved closer to Ann Street along Madison Avenue before moving to the school in 1960, five years after the then all-white school was opened.
“I don’t understand why in 2020 a vast majority black student population, or any population for that matter but especially a majority black one, should go to a school named after a known white supremacist. Jefferson Davis should be renamed; Robert E. Lee should be renamed; Sidney Lanier should be renamed," Dalton said.
Dalton added that because the alleged crimes took place on MPS property, “I would also encourage MPS to actively work toward all charges being dropped and for all schools named after white supremacists to be renamed.”
Montgomery protests
Hundreds gathered Monday night in front of the state Capitol building in downtown Montgomery to protest police brutality and the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the second downtown protest in two days.
After a protest devolved in Birmingham Sunday night, Mayor Steven Reed on Monday asked Montgomerians to consider staying home this week.
But the Monday night rally lasted peacefully for more than two hours, with both demonstrators and police de-escalating tense moments throughout the night.
The crowd was dispersed at 10 p.m., per a city curfew enacted amid the coronavirus pandemic. Police handcuffed and led away one woman who refused to leave the area and announced a handful of later arrests throughout the city related to property crime, though there's no indication they were directly related to the downtown protest.
More: Police arrest six, respond to a dozen calls of damage, stolen property following Monday protest
Reed credited Finley and Montgomery Police officers for taking their Monday approach, which included expanding the protest zone multiple times to allow protesters to demonstrate. He said “there are those that believe you have to meet peaceful protesters with forceful tactics,” but that’s not the path Montgomery chooses to take.
“We’ve learned that lesson generations ago. It’s not one we plan to repeat,” Reed said.
At dusk on Tuesday, a handful of people held a candlelight vigil to pray for Floyd and "peace" in Montgomery. Though police again blocked off Dexter Avenue in anticipation of protesters, fewer officers manned the barricade and few demonstrators were present.
Mayor Steven Reed on Tuesday how long he expects protests to continue here, pointing out that some people are on edge about the situation.
Reed, the city’s first black mayor, said minorities have been dealing with those kinds of anxieties for a lot longer than the past few days and they deserve a chance to raise their voice.
More: Montgomery mayor pledges to work with protesters, make changes
“That’s what I heard yesterday, that there are people who live with the strain and the trauma of having to be concerned about how they’re going to be perceived not only by the police in the community, but others,” he said.
“We’re standing in the city of a protest that was supposed to be one day and lasted 381 more days. So, I don’t know when this protest is over. We’ll work with the protesters as long as we need to work with them. If it’s three more days, or if it’s 300 more days we’ll work with them and we’ll make sure we make the changes that need to be made. That’s how we got this far.”
Read Bailey's full statement here
“Racism has no place in our society. I recognize that our nation, our state and most especially our city has a complicated and often deplorable history in relation to race and racial equality. I know that the sins of our past will dictate our future if we do not continue to push for change.
I want to make clear that as your District Attorney, I am charged with seeking justice. It is my honor and my duty to do so. In these difficult times it is imperative that the law be administered fairly, accurately, and impartially.
This morning the Montgomery Police Department filed charges against four Montgomery citizens for taking down a statue of Robert E. Lee that was displayed at the entrance of Robert E. Lee High School. I have reviewed the warrants and affidavits and have found them to contain legal errors that would make the crimes for which these four have been charged not prosecutable. I am not making any determination as to rightfulness or wrongfulness of these charges being filed.
I have advised the Montgomery Police Department that if the City of Montgomery and the Montgomery Public School Board desire to continue prosecution of these individuals that my office stands ready to advise on how these errors can be corrected.
This decision should not be seen or interpreted as endorsing citizens taking the law into their own hands. There is a process when trying to settle grievances with our Government and those should be litigated in our Courts not our streets.
I firmly believe that if these individuals had opened dialogue with City and County leaders that they would have listened and done everything in their power to address these concerns in a lawful manner.
I want to thank those who have protested in Montgomery for remaining peaceful. They have every right to protest and to demand change in their government. However, these protests must remain calm, peaceful, and safe as they have up to this point.
We must continue to search for ways to have productive conversations coupled with action to move our community forward. We must refrain from activities that stifle progress and are criminal. I am dedicated now more than ever to being an accessible, fair-minded District Attorney, community leader and community servant.
We will fail as a society if we do not learn to love each other and live together peacefully. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com. Reporters Kirsten Fiscus, Krista Johnson and Brad Harper contributed to this story.
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