After almost three hours of negotiations, a Republican National Convention protester reluctantly pleaded guilty Monday to aiding and abetting first-degree criminal damage to property in the breaking of a First National Bank building window Sept. 1.
Jason Allan Sparks, 24, of Fridley, was scheduled to go to trial in the case Monday in Ramsey County District Court.
Instead, the prosecution notified him and his attorney, Ted Dooley, that they would add a charge if the case went forward.
The second charge involved an accusation that Sparks also had broken a window at Macy's department store that day, said prosecutor Rick Dusterhoft. Protester Glenn Dyer had pleaded guilty to breaking a different window there, Dusterhoft said.
Meanwhile, Judge Paulette Flynn refused to delay Sparks' case, Dooley said.
Sparks was thus put in the position of deciding Monday whether to face two charges at trial or plead guilty to one immediately.
According to a criminal complaint citing undercover police information, Sparks belonged to an 80-person "subgroup" of an anarchist organization known as the RNC Welcoming Committee.
The subgroup, known as Sector 5, broke away from a peaceful 10,000-person protest march Sept. 1 and "descended into St. Paul," damaging parked police cars, the complaint said. One member of the group, masked and clothed in black, broke a large window of the bank at Fourth and Minnesota streets. That person later was identified as Sparks.
When he and Dooley came back into the courtroom Monday after an extended conversation in the hallway, Dooley said, "You have 15 seconds to decide."
"I told you, I don't know," Sparks said.
Dooley and another defense attorney, Carla Magnuson, both said, "That's a no."
Sparks paused.
"OK, yes, Mr. Dooley, I want to say yes." He would plead guilty.
Again, they left the courtroom. Again, they returned. He was ready to plead.
And then he wasn't. "Hey, Mr. Dooley, make that a no," Sparks said from his seat in the gallery.
They left again. Sparks sat in the hallway in tears as he continued the discussion with his lawyer.
Six minutes before noon, Sparks agreed to a deal in which he would have a maximum jail term of 60 days. The felony charge will become a gross misdemeanor if he completes terms of his five-year probation — assuming a review of his background reveals no prior felonies.
Sparks also will have to pay restitution for the broken window. The criminal complaint estimated the cost at $17,000, including boarding, cleanup and replacement. A precise figure was not mentioned Monday, only that the cost would be more than $1,000.
Sparks admitted in questioning by Dusterhoft that he had used his hands to push in the window of the First National Bank after someone else had partially broken it.
"You were trying to finish the job, correct?" Dusterhoft asked.
"Yeah," Sparks said.
When Judge Flynn asked whether Sparks was pleading guilty because he was, in fact, guilty, Sparks said, "Ah — yes."
Sparks declined to comment after the hearing.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 16.
RNC protester's guilty plea a long affair |