Mary Anne Grady-Flores, a 58-year-old Ithaca, NY grandmother of three, faces a one-year county jail sentence after being charged with second-degree criminal contempt. The punishment comes after her repeated participation in peaceful anti-drone protests at the Hancock Air Base in DeWitt, NY.
In October 2012, Grady-Flores was taken into custody after a drone protest. According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, 16 people from the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars (UCGDEW) blocked three gates at the New York National Guard Hancock Field during the demonstration. They were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct, and a protection order was eventually issued to prevent Grady-Flores from going near Col. Earl Evans, the mission support group commander at the 174th Attack Wing of the New York Air National Guard. Boing Boing notes that protection orders are at times given to non-violent stalkers, and this one was valid for one year, according to the paper.
Timing was not on Grady-Flores' side. In February 2013, Grady-Flores and 11 other UCGDEW members were being sentenced (this time to 15 days at a local penitentiary following new disorderly conduct charges; trespassing charged were dismissed). According an account Ellen Grady (Grady-Flores' sister) gave the Post-Standard, Grady-Flores was in attendance at the base to photograph the events this time rather than protest herself. But in the initial sentencing hearing, DeWitt Town Justice David Gideon said her intent was "completely irrelevant" to her additional criminal contempt charge since Grady-Flores admitted to being on base property. Grady told the Post-Standard that Grady-Flores was "was not a threat to Evans and... unaware that her actions in February violated the protection order." Grady-Flores eventually went to trial for criminal contempt in May and was found guilty. Her sentencing took place this week.
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