RAPID CITY - The
pro-life advocate who was arrested for failing to vacate the South
Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus about two weeks ago
is no longer facing criminal charges.
Pennington County
deputy state's attorney Sarah Seljeskog dropped one count of
failure to vacate against 18-year-old California resident Joey Cox
on May 16. According to a court document, the count was dismissed
"in the best interest of justice."
Cox, who faced a
maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for the class 2
misdemeanor, was arrested May 8 after visiting the campus after a
phone conversation with Julie Smoragiewicz, the vice president of
university relations.
Cox had called to
tell Smoragiewicz that he and other members of a pro-life advocacy
group, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, planned to visit the
campus in an hour. The group had planned to set up signs and hand
out anti-abortion brochures and information.
Smoragiewicz told
him the university would need two weeks' notice before
demonstrating on the campus, as per campus policy.
Cox and the group
arrived on campus an hour later and were greeted by Rapid City
police, and Cox was arrested.
"The Constitution
does not require individuals to obtain permission before they
exercise their First Amendment rights," said Cox's lawyer, Stephen
Wesolick of the Wesolick Law Firm in Rapid City. "Furthermore, the
school's administration misapplied their policy when they chose to
silence Mr. Cox."
Wesolick made the
statement through a news release from Alliance Defense Fund, a
national organization dedicated to protecting first-amendment
rights. Wesolick is involved in the group and agreed to represent
Cox for free.
At the time,
Smoragiewicz said she told the group they could either come back at
a later date or set up on the sidewalk outside Tech's student
center - an area not on campus property but one that gets a lot of
traffic.
Smoragiewicz said
her priority was student safety and comfort.
"We just didn't
feel it was appropriate to look at adjusting our policy with an
hour's notice," she said. "Most groups get approved," she said. "I
can't imagine there would have been any issue."
Wesolick argued
that Cox should not have been required to adhere to the two-week
notice policy that Smoragiewicz said applied to the
situation.
"Free speech is a
protected right under the Constitution and does not require
adherence to this type of school policy," he said in the ADF news
release. "Mr. Cox acted entirely within his rights when he chose to
engage in pro-life speech on the school's campus."
After his arrest,
Cox was released on a $300 cash bond. He continued on the group's
Campus Life Tour, which visits campuses nationwide to deliver its
pro-life message.
