Six members of the Occupy Honolulu movement pleaded no contest Wednesday to violating park closure rules in November when they remained in Thomas Square after hours.
Jamie Baldwin, Megan Brooker, Lucas Miller, Randall Perez, Luke Satsuma and Nickolas Wooden agreed to pay $50 each to the state general fund and $30 each to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund.
They were granted six-month deferrals of their convictions under plea agreements. The convictions will be stricken from their records if they appear before District Judge Linda Luke on Sept. 20 and show that they have not been arrested again.
Violating park closure rules is a petty misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a month in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Wooden lives in Kapahulu; the five others said they live in Makiki.
The six defendants were among eight protesters arrested Nov. 5 for entering and remaining in Thomas Square after the park had been closed at 10 p.m.
Occupy Honolulu supporters said a man and a woman pleaded no contest to a lesser offense of trespassing shortly after their arrest because they had to leave the island.
In denying motions by an attorney for the six protesters on March 8, Luke said city park rules serve "a substantial governmental interest in preserving public health and safety of the public at large." The protesters argued that they were exercising their constitutional right to free speech.
Since January, city parks and facility management workers have impounded protesters’ belongings under a new city ordinance. The law, which took effect in December, prohibits storage of any personal items on city property. Confiscated property is held at the Halawa base yard for 30 days before being destroyed or sold.
City workers have invoked the law in subsequent cleanups at Thomas Square as well as on sidewalks and in parks in Chinatown, McCully-Moiliili and Waikiki. Workers removed anything stored in those locations longer than 24 hours.
There was one arrest during those sweeps.
Miller, 29, was cited with obstruction of a government operation, a misdemeanor, during a Feb. 2 Thomas Square sweep. Miller, a teacher, was arrested after he held his tent over his head while dancing and blocked the workers from loading a backhoe.
