Robert Groden's not done battling the city of Dallas over his right to sell

[Bernice Moore]

Robert Groden's not done battling the city of Dallas over his right to sell

JFK conspiracy materials in Dealey Plaza

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2013/03/robert-grodens-not-done-battling-

the-city-of-dallas-over-his-right-to-sell-jfk-conspiracy-materials-in-dealey

-plaza.html/

or

http://tinyurl.com/b8r55b4

By Robert Wilonsky

For close to two decades the city of Dallas and Robert Groden have been at

odds over his right to set up a table at Dealey Plaza from which he sells

his DVDs, magazines and books insisting John Kennedy was killed by a cast of

co-conspirators. For now, at least, that battle has come to an

end: As noted below, in recent days a Dallas County Criminal Court of

Appeals upheld a municipal court judge's December 2010 decision to toss out

the city's case against Groden, who never left Dealey Plaza despite dozens

of arrests and even more warnings. But the case is far from closed.

From the files, this photo of Groden taping down the "X" in the center of

Elm St. that marks the spot where JFK was fatally shot

In June 2010 Groden filed a federal suit against the city that alleged,

among other things, malicious prosecution. That case was put on hold while

the city and Groden duked it out elsewhere.

"But now that we have this ruling, we can look ahead to federal court,"

says Groden, who served as the staff photographic consultant to the House

Select Committee on Assassinations and was a consultant on Oliver Stone's

JFK. "And now we're hoping to show beyond any question that what the city

did was wrong. .. This has been going on for 14 years, this degree of

harassment, and it has to stop."

Over the years Groden's been given 80 citations for illegally peddling his

wares on city-controlled parks property, and 80 times those citations were

tossed. The city long claimed that Dealey Plaza was a municipal park over

which it had total authority, but as Dallas Municipal Judge Carrie Chavez

ruled in December 2010, the site of the assassination is never mentioned in

the Dallas City Code. So she tossed the case. (Chavez, incidentally, is no

longer a municipal judge: She wasn't recommended for rehire last summer

during those contentions muni judge back-and-forths at City Hall.)

As you can read below, on February 15 Judge Kristen Wade of the County

Criminal Court of Appeals ruled that Chavez was absolutely right in her

initial ruling. In documents filed in federal court last week,

(now-outgoing) Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins wrote that Dallas "will not

further appeal the municipal court's order quashing the misdemeanor

information against Groden. Therefore, the City cannot further prosecute Mr.

Groden in with respect to his actions that gave rise to that misdemeanor

charge."

"The city was just plain wrong," says Groden, who believes his persecution

and prosecution was led by the city in concert with the Sixth Floor Museum

at Dealey Plaza. "As we get closer and closer to November 22, it's becoming

more and more obvious the city and the Sixth Floor Museum are trying to

censor what we're trying to say - that there was an alternative. We're

saying, 'Think, look at the evidence.' And the Sixth Floor doesn't want you

to see the evidence."

And Groden says he has more: Upcoming, he promises, is his latest book

JFK: Absolute Proof, which has "tons of new evidence I couldn't talk about

before," he says. If you need a copy he'll be out in Dealey Plaza, where

he's been for years - now, with a judge's blessing. Of course, still in

question is whether he'll be there on November 22 .

"For 49 years now people like myself and the Coalition of Political

Assassinations have kept the issues of the assassination alive and done very

respectful observations on the anniversary of the assassination for

49 years," he says. "Now it's the magic 50, and the city can make money off

it and they want to take it over and pretend like they've been doing their

job all these years. But people are aware of what the city's trying to do;

they know there's a degrees of censorship related to Dealey Plaza. But

people want to know the truth."

Click here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/128910298/City-v-Robert-Groden-Docs

or

http://tinyurl.com/aooo9by