Attorney: Prosecutors propagate fear among social justice movement

Attorney Jenn Kaplan says it’s intimidation.

“Prosecutors will bring people into the grand jury room just to propagate fear,” Kaplan tells Seattle’s Morning News.

Her client was just released from jail. Katherine Olejnik had been held in solitary at a SeaTac federal detention center for five months without being charged with a crime.

Prosecutors wanted her to answer questions about the beliefs of her friends. Her friends, prosecutors believe, participated in the Seattle melee on May Day. Olejnik refused. Kaplan says that line of questioning did not pertain to the prosecutor’s case.

According to Kaplan, the prosecutor asked her before the grand jury whether she was present in Seattle on May Day. Her answer was no. They asked whether she had been in Seattle the week before or after May Day. The answer was no. They asked her if she knew about anyone’s travel plans to go to Seattle for May Day. The answer was no. And they asked her if anyone had confessed the crime to her. The answer was no.

“That should have been enough for the government,” says Kaplan. “Instead they started asking her about various people and their associations to one another and that was information that my client wasn’t willing to provide.”

She says it’s not the kind evidence you need to prosecute someone who has committed an act of vandalism.

Kaplan believes prosecutors didn’t need her testimony to make their case – and that’s a big part of the problem.

Kaplan found out months later that by the time Olejnik was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury they had identified several suspects. According to Kaplan, prosecutors seemed very confident of their identification. A search warrant affidavit recently unsealed showed that law enforcement had identified suspects, searched those suspects’ houses and seized items that they believe they wore during the commission of the crime.

As for Olejnik’s five months in isolation – Kaplan says it was devastating for the young woman, calling her one of the friendliest, warmest people she knows. “When you’re in solitary confinement you don’t have access to other detainees. You get one 15-minute phone call a month. Her ability to write letters was restricted because you have to use a special kind of pen in solitary and we ran out of them.”

And Kaplan is concerned, that while Olejnik has been released, she could still be held in contempt – and it comes down to fear.

“Prosecutors will bring people into the grand jury room just to propagate fear because of the idea that if you’re involved in the social justice movement, your friends with people that might have committed a crime, that you’re not safe from government intervention into your life.” It breeds distrust among social movements, says Kaplan, and discourages even law abiding citizens from getting involved in social justice movements.