[UPDATE] Judge: Eviction Of Protesters From Zuccotti Park Was Legal

[UPDATE BELOW] A judge ruled on Friday that Brookfield Properties, through the actions of the NYPD, had the right to evict Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti Park on November 15. The ruling arose after a lawyer for the protester Ronny Nunez asked judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. to dismiss his client's charges because Zuccotti Park is required to be open 24 hours. The Times quotes the judge's opinion: “It is clear that when the defendant was ordered by the police to vacate the park, he was not legally entitled to refuse."

Nunez is charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, and obstruction. Nunez's attorney, Jethro Eisenstein, argued along with the NYCLU that Brookfield had to clear such an action with the City Planning Commission. Taking the city's facts at face value, the court disagreed.

However Judge Sciarrino did call the question of the park's status as a privately-owned, public space "a fairly complex legal issue," and that at trial "the prosecution will have a difficult case to prove an actual intent to trespass. Clearly, whether or not the defendant intended to trespass was not a simple issue due to the many complexities of the eviction.”

It is unclear whether the other instances of the NYPD closing the park are also considered legal.

[UPDATE]

Taylor Pendergrass, a senior staff attorney at the NYCLU who has been working on the case, tells us that the thornier questions about the park's closure will be argued at trial when more information is brought to bear. "We believe the judge's ruling indicated that the city is going to have to prove several things: was this really a temporary closure conducted as short as reasonably necessary? Or was it a more substantial modification that therefore required more considerations?"

As to whether or not the city has proved that there were "emergency" conditions that allowed Brookfield and the NYPD to evict the protesters, Pendergrass says, "The Judge's ruling is actually really silent on this point. The city was pitching this theory so we tailored our argument accordingly…Clearly there wasn't an emergency situation here."

"Remember, Brookfield sent a letter to the city on October 11 expressing their concern about the condition of Zuccotti Park," Pendergrass said, adding that Brookfield had "ample time" to address the City Planning Commission. "The CPC process would have provided for a lot of stakeholder input, not just from the people in the park but the Borough President and the Community Board. If the law had been followed there might have been much more of a balance, rather than just evicting everyone and completely altering the character of the park."

The trial is set to begin June 18.