------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Sat, Jul. 19, 2003

Lawyer: Bush criminalizes criticism

Activist arrested for being in area restricted during president's visit

By Jeffrey Collins

The Associated Press

COLUMBIA - A lawyer for a local activist charged with refusing to leave a restricted area during a visit by President Bush last fall says the Bush administration is trying to make criticizing the president a crime.

In a motion filed Friday, Brett Bursey's attorney included testimony from a Michigan case to boost his argument that the U.S. Secret Service unfairly pushes protesters hundreds of yards away from the president while allowing supporters to line Bush's route.

Defense lawyer Lewis Pitts wants documents from state and federal authorities he said will prove his claim that Bursey "has been wrongly charged simply for criticizing the president."

Bursey, 54, faces a seldom-used federal charge of entering a restricted area around the president of the United States. He faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted.

Bursey originally was arrested by local police for trespassing during Bush's visit to Columbia in October, but those charges were dropped.

The federal prosecutor trying the S.C. case did not return a phone call Friday, but the U.S. Attorney's Office previously has said the problem wasn't what Bursey said but where he was saying it.

In his motion, Pitts wants the Secret Service and the State Law Enforcement Division to turn over security plans for Bush's visits to South Carolina in March, August and October of 2002. They also want all memos, e-mails or other notes concerning Bursey.

Pitts said a SLED agent gave a signed statement saying agents discussed that Bursey was planning to protest the president's visit and asked one agent to make sure he was sent to an area a half-mile away from Bush.

To bolster his argument, Pitts included parts of a transcript from a Michigan state trial where a college student was arrested for trespassing after he refused to put down a sign critical of Bush.

In the transcript, a police captain said the Secret Service told him to move anyone protesting the president away from areas near where Bush would speak.

The issue isn't security, said Bursey, pointing out that the Michigan arrest happened before the 2001 terrorist attacks. "They want no photo opportunity that would show the president in a bad light," he said.

Bursey, who held a sign that said "No War for Oil," contends other people with signs favoring Bush were allowed to stay in the area.

Prosecutors will have a few weeks to respond to the defense request. Pitts expects them to turn him down, sending the matter before a judge.

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