The Bay Area Reporter - May 19, 2000
Terry Beswick

The four û David Pasquarelli, Andrea Lindsay, Jason "Todd" Swindell, and Michael Bellefountaine û are each being charged by the district attorney with one misdemeanor charge of trespassing at an April 17 educational forum in San Francisco organized by two nonprofit AIDS groups, Project Inform and Survive AIDS.

Additionally, the warrants for Pasquarelli and Lindsay allege that the two "willfully and unlawfully used force" against two individuals at the forum. They are being charged with misdemeanor assault, a charge defined by the D.A.'s office as an "attempt to inflict bodily injury."

Meanwhile, at press time, four of the five temporary restraining orders granted in the aftermath of the April 17 forum and issued almost two weeks ago by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Alfred G. Chiantelli against some of the same members of ACT UP/San Franciscoûincluding Pasquarelli, Swindell, and Bellefountaine, as well as their fellow dissident Ronnie Burkûhad not yet been presented to the identified individuals by authorized process servers, and therefore were not yet in force. Of the five restraining orders, which require the named people to stay at least 100 yards away from Project Inform's offices and public meetings, as well its staff and volunteers, only the order against Lindsay had been successfully served.

"We believe that they are evading service, and that they know the terms of the restraining orders," stated Amy Lovell, an attorney with Morrison and Foerster who is representing Project Inform on the civil matter on a pro bono basis.

"The plaintiff feels like they're evading being served, but they're not," said Michael Lee, the lawyer who's representing the five on the civil matter.

The court will hold a hearing on whether to extend the orders for three years on June 2.

ACT UP/San Francisco member Derek St. Pierre, who told the Bay Area Reporter he will represent Pasquarelli in court on the criminal charges, as well as the other four until they obtain their own counsel, said that they will deny all allegations.

Trespassing is punishable by a maximum of six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine, while the assault charges û if proven û carry a penalty of up to six months in jail, plus a $2,000 fine.

The alleged attacks took place during a melee that ensued when the four and a few other members of the small, controversial propaganda group burst through meeting security and, according to numerous witnesses, immediately began shouting slogans, notably "You faggots deserve to die," as well as their trademark mantras, including their denialist "AIDS is over." Protesters also reportedly were spitting and throwing handfuls of hard pills into the audience and at the invited panelists.

The April 17 meeting was interrupted about half-way through the program featuring nationally recognized AIDS researchers and community activists discussing new developments in treatment strategies for the life-threatening disease.

The dissidents fled before police arrived.

The assault charges against Pasquarelli and Lindsay are related to reported attacks against two Project Inform staff members, Judy Leahy-Hogan and Freddie Oaks Jr. According to the D.A.'s office, prosecutors will seek to prove in court that Pasquarelli pushed Leahy-Hogan, a meeting organizer, resulting in a minor injury to her knee when she tried to break up a scuffle between the protesters and audience members. Lindsay is accused of spitting repeatedly on Oaks, who helps staff Project Inform's national hotline.

When Project Inform and their two staff members filed charges against the four ACT UP members, San Francisco Police Department Inspector Lea Militello conducted a thorough investigation of the incident, and filed a report with the district attorney's office last week.

The public event at the Baha'i Center at 170 Valencia Street was attended by several dozen people with HIV/AIDS, many of whom assisted the SFPD in their preliminary investigation of the incident. Many participants and organizers reported feeling fearful and threatened by the sudden, surreal demonstration.

"I worked pretty tirelessly on this," Militello told the B.A.R.

At press time, however, the four had not yet been arrested by the SFPD.

Fred Gardner, spokesman for the district attorney's office told the B.A.R. that the D.A.'s office had been in touch with the attorney representing the accused who said that his clients would be turning themselves in voluntarily "within days."

The day after the incident, ACT UP/San Francisco issued a statement claiming that "the event exploded into pushing, punching, and spitting with ACT UP activists were attacked by Project Inform employees à"

The district attorney's office disagrees.

"In making these charging decisions, the D.A.'s focus was on whether public safety was affected and whether violence took place," said Gardner, who expressed confidence that prosecutors will be able to prove all charges in court beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The issue is the use of violence," Gardner said.

"We're glad to see that the police department and the D.A. is taking seriously the kind of assaults that ACT UP/San Francisco has been committing against AIDS workers for years," commented Avi Rose, executive director at Project Inform.

Mike Donnelly, a member of Survive AIDS, has independently investigated ACT UP/San Francisco's formation of a GTT Trust, reported on in the May 4 B.A.R.

"It seems like they're scurrying like cockroaches when the light's turned on," commented Donnelly.
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