A six-member jury is in place to decide whether a woman committed a crime when she swore and shouted at a Tarrant County Commissioners Court meeting in January.
Carolyn Rodriguez, who goes by Carolina, has pleaded not guilty to hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine up to $4,000.
Another speaker at the Jan. 28 meeting, CJ Grisham, was expelled for swearing during his public comment time. When Rodriguez got to the podium, she told commissioners they couldn’t ban people from swearing, and she rattled off a list of expletives.
County Judge Tim O’Hare ordered sheriff’s deputies to remove Rodriguez. She yelled “[Expletive] you!” as she left, and “It’s not against the law!”
Rodriguez's trial began Friday with jury selection, where the defense and prosecution ask potential jurors questions to weed out any bias. Tarrant County prosecutor Lloyd Whelchel polled the 40-person pool on whether the government has a right to limit certain behavior at meetings, and whether it's fair for disruptive people to get kicked out.
Rodriguez’s defense attorney, Mark Streiff, gauged potential jurors’ feelings on the First Amendment, which guarantees a right to free speech (with some limits). He argued in a June 9 court filing that Rodriguez’s arrest violated that constitutional right.
“The County Judge ordered Defendant to be removed by law enforcement due to her protected speech, law enforcement arrested Defendant after she exited the meeting, and the State is now prosecuting Defendant for conduct that is protected by the First Amendment,” Streiff wrote. “The State’s prosecution of Defendant is unlawful.”
Governments are allowed to set rules for how meetings are run, but a high-level misdemeanor charge for breaking those rules is overkill, Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Travis Fife previously told KERA News.
“I think that it's a pretty grotesque abuse of the criminal law to silence public participation in government,” he said.
Streiff has subpoenaed O’Hare and Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons. That’s a legal order to compel someone to show up and testify.
Whelchel filed a motion to throw out those subpoenas. On Friday, he told the judge the alleged crime is all on tape — all commissioners court meetings are livestreamed on YouTube. Calling O’Hare in is an attempt to harass and embarrass him, Whelchel said.
“What can Judge O'Hare add to what's on video?” he asked.
The angle of the video does not capture the entire incident, Streiff said. It shows Rodriguez leaving the podium, but she is not visible while she’s shouting afterwards.
O’Hare should also testify because he’s the one who ordered her out of the commissioners court meeting, leading to her arrest, Streiff argued. Judge Brian Bolton said he would decide whether O'Hare should testify by Monday.
Simmons is willing to testify with or without a subpoena, according to Streiff. She defended people’s right to cuss at the Jan. 28 meeting where Rodriguez was arrested.
Simmons asked county attorney Mark Kratovil what the rules surrounding free speech are, and Kratovil said he could give legal advice behind closed doors.
Courtroom rules ban profanity, O’Hare said.
“That’s fine. That's [expletive] fine, but I need to know if it is protected speech,” Simmons said.
“You are simply the most classless person we’ve ever had sitting on this dais,” O’Hare said.
Streiff is also representing Charles Hermes, who faces the same charge as Rodriguez for clapping out of turn at the the Jan. 28 meeting. It's unclear when his trial will start, based on court records.
Ironically, public comment at that meeting centered around the court’s new decorum policy.
There has been intense debate over what behavior should and should not be allowed at Tarrant County Commissioners Court meetings. As county judge, O’Hare is in charge of running meetings, and some have criticized him for who he decides to kick out, and when.
Last year, a local pastor was issued a trespass warning and banned from the building after O’Hare ordered him out for speaking eight seconds over his allotted public comment time.
O’Hare has said he is committed to running fair, civil meetings and that he is not trying to stifle free speech by enforcing the rules.
Commissioners approved the new decorum policy on Jan. 28 in a 3-2 party line vote, with Republicans in the majority. It specifies when people can be kicked out of meetings, and, in some circumstances, how long they can be banned.
Rodriguez is a familiar figure to local law enforcement. She’s a free speech activist and cop watcher who films police interactions on her YouTube channel, Carolina in Fort Worth, which has almost 100,000 subscribers.
Last year, Rodriguez was livestreaming Fort Worth police’s response to a crash when an officer arrested her and injured her. The officer, Matthew Krueger, was fired for using unjustified force, and Rodriguez was found guilty on charges of interference with public duties, KERA News previously reported.
Rodriguez’s trial could extend through Tuesday, Bolton told jurors.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.
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