The "Racine 441" Appear in Court
Published December 03, 2002
Shortly after midnight on November 3, the Racine, Wisconsin police raided a non-profit fundraiser featuring electronic music and cited 441 people in the "techno room" for being "inmates of a disorderly house with narcotics," for which they could be fined up to $968. Many appeared in court yesterday:
- Defiance was in the air Monday as most of the people who received $968 citations for attending a rave party in Racine rejected an offer to settle their cases for $100.
The dozens of not-guilty pleas filed Monday mean the city might have to hire a special prosecutor to handle potentially hundreds of Municipal Court trials.
Police had issued the "inmate of a disorderly house/controlled substances" citations to 441 people after breaking up the rave at a bar on Nov. 2. They also arrested three men on drug charges.
The Racine city attorney's office then offered to reduce the fine to $100 for anyone who pleaded no contest to the municipal citation.
But on Monday, when 206 of the young adults were scheduled to make their initial court appearance, only 19 pleaded no contest, were found guilty and paid the $100; 40 did not appear and were found guilty by default. That left 147, or more than 70%, who pleaded not guilty and demanded a trial. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
More from the Racine Journal:
- A month ago, Ashley Hurkmans, 18, and three friends drove six hours from Escanaba, Mich., to go to a rave party in Racine. She was one of 440 people the Racine Police Department cited for being at the alleged drug party.
On Monday, Hurkmans and her dad, Tony, made the same six-hour drive to fight the ticket.
"That's all I need, a drug charge on my record," Ashley Hurkmans said. She was one of 166 people who appeared Monday in Racine Municipal Court because of the citations issued at the Nov. 2 party. When given the choice by Municipal Court Judge Rob Weber, most chose to fight the citations instead of pleading no contest — essentially the same as pleading guilty — for a reduced fine.
In all, 147 pleaded innocent to being a patron at a disorderly house. They were given trial dates of Jan. 24 and Jan. 30. Only 19 people took the city's offer of a no-contest plea.
The disorderly house citations originally carried fines of $968 each, but the city lowered that to $100 for those who plead guilty or no contest to the citations.
Forty people didn't show up for their court hearing on the citations. They will be fined between $250 and $300.
People who fight their tickets and lose could be subject to the full amount of the original fine.
- The "Racine 441" Appear in Court
- Published: December 03, 2002
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: DJ, Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Comments on this articleComments
I seriously think that the City of Racine PD definitely
bit off more than they can chew. I went to this party to
listen to the music. It's not everyday you get to hear
16 DJ's in one place. The police make it out to sound that
everyone that listens to "electronica" music is in some form a druggie. They need to get there asses off their shoulders. Why don't they look up records. I'm sure most of the people that attended the fund raiser on December 2nd have pretty clean records. For some it may mean they just haven't gotten caught, but for those of us who ACTUALLY have clean records, don't need a drug violation. And all of this crap about reducing the fines... I think crap describes that very well. So what if it goes down to a disorderly conduct ticket. What happens if someone actually gets a disorderly conduct ticket in the future? It would make it their second offense and they get screwed. Either way I wished all 441 of us had pled NOT GUILTY. They're putting a bad name to techno music. That type of music does NOT always associate with drugs. Though X is a very common drug among raves. This was NOT a rave... and if it was, it was the weakest rave. It was the first time I'd ever even gone to an event like that (besides regular concerts and Summerfest). From what I hear of raves, this was nothing like it. I say if we're supposed to be the "Land of the Free" then why the hell are we treated like this! If we're so "free" then why does the so-called government voilate our rights? The police over stepped their boundaries and went too far with this one. In the end, they're only screwing themselves in the rear. They think they're going to make an example out of us? HA! Well, let me say that we're going to stand up for our rights. I'm sick of getting pushed around all the time. It's about time that a group actually stands up for something they love as a group. Freedom of Speech!! It's not individuals in this matter. For the 300 some odd people that do plead Not Guilty, I thank you! I pled Not Guilty as well, and I plan to battle this thing out until the end. And for those people who just sit back and have the nerve to call us stupid, or simple-minded fools, or whatever it is that you'd like to call us... we're actually the smart ones. Just remember, we're fighting for YOUR rights. The rights that YOU wont get off your fat, lazy, butt to fight for. The way they treated us was inhumane! Throwing people on pool tables. I heard tons of profanities out of a lady officers mouth. The same lady officer that said my friend must have been on drugs because she had to go to the bathroom and the only way they would let her go was to have another officer standing at her knees. I don't know about everyone else, but when you're in a situation like that, it's hard to pee infront of someone. It was rude of that officer to say that she was on drugs. The officer that wrote my ticket didn't even understand why we were getting them. She just suggested we appear in court and if we wanted to fight it, to do so at that time. Pardon me for ranting, but I'm sick of seeing this happen and nobody doing anything to prevent it from happening again. My word of advice to the Racine City PD is... Get your heads and asses wired together because you're in for a world of pain. Taxpayers are going to just love seeing their money wasted on your foolish actions! Long live America! United We Stand, my ass.
Sincerely,
Michelle Bohn
West Allis, WI
not a druggie...? HAH!!
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I seriously think that the City of Racine PD definitely
bit off more than they can chew. I went to this party to
listen to the music. It's not everyday you get to hear
16 DJ's in one place. The police make it out to sound that
everyone that listens to "electronica" music is in some form a druggie. They need to get there asses off their shoulders. Why don't they look up records. I'm sure most of the people that attended the fund raiser on December 2nd have pretty clean records. For some it may mean they just haven't gotten caught, but for those of us who ACTUALLY have clean records, don't need a drug violation. And all of this crap about reducing the fines... I think crap describes that very well. So what if it goes down to a disorderly conduct ticket. What happens if someone actually gets a disorderly conduct ticket in the future? It would make it their second offense and they get screwed. Either way I wished all 441 of us had pled NOT GUILTY. They're putting a bad name to techno music. That type of music does NOT always associate with drugs. Though X is a very common drug among raves. This was NOT a rave... and if it was, it was the weakest rave. It was the first time I'd ever even gone to an event like that (besides regular concerts and Summerfest). From what I hear of raves, this was nothing like it. I say if we're supposed to be the "Land of the Free" then why the hell are we treated like this! If we're so "free" then why does the so-called government voilate our rights? The police over stepped their boundaries and went too far with this one. In the end, they're only screwing themselves in the rear. They think they're going to make an example out of us? HA! Well, let me say that we're going to stand up for our rights. I'm sick of getting pushed around all the time. It's about time that a group actually stands up for something they love as a group. Freedom of Speech!! It's not individuals in this matter. For the 300 some odd people that do plead Not Guilty, I thank you! I pled Not Guilty as well, and I plan to battle this thing out until the end. And for those people who just sit back and have the nerve to call us stupid, or simple-minded fools, or whatever it is that you'd like to call us... we're actually the smart ones. Just remember, we're fighting for YOUR rights. The rights that YOU wont get off your fat, lazy, butt to fight for. The way they treated us was inhumane! Throwing people on pool tables. I heard tons of profanities out of a lady officers mouth. The same lady officer that said my friend must have been on drugs because she had to go to the bathroom and the only way they would let her go was to have another officer standing at her knees. I don't know about everyone else, but when you're in a situation like that, it's hard to pee infront of someone. It was rude of that officer to say that she was on drugs. The officer that wrote my ticket didn't even understand why we were getting them. She just suggested we appear in court and if we wanted to fight it, to do so at that time. Pardon me for ranting, but I'm sick of seeing this happen and nobody doing anything to prevent it from happening again. My word of advice to the Racine City PD is... Get your heads and asses wired together because you're in for a world of pain. Taxpayers are going to just love seeing their money wasted on your foolish actions! Long live America! United We Stand, my ass.
Sincerely,
Michelle Bohn
West Allis, WI