Clyde Bellecourt trespass trial ends in mistrial; city says it will retry him

After toiling more than nine hours over three days, a jury in Minneapolis failed to reach a verdict Tuesday in the trespassing trial of American Indian activist Clyde Bellecourt. The judge declared a mistrial.

A prosecutor said the city would retry the 77-year-old man.

Bellecourt said he didn't believe a second jury would fare any better than the first.

"People I talk to can't believe it went this far," he said. "I'm sure this cost thousands of dollars."

The co-founder of the American Indian Movement and veteran of the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee was on trial on a misdemeanor count of trespassing. Minneapolis police arrested him Dec. 24 after he refused a security guard's demand that he leave the IDS Center.

Bellecourt had gone there to lend support to a group gathered in the skyscraper's Crystal Court to perform a ceremonial "round dance" honoring a Canadian chief staging a 40-day hunger strike.

It is rare for misdemeanor cases to go to trial in Hennepin County; this one lasted seven days. The mistrial came after the jury foreman sent Hennepin County District Judge James Moore a third note saying the panel was deadlocked.

"I'm convinced at this point we're not going to get a unanimous verdict from this jury," the judge told the lawyers and Bellecourt after he read the final note aloud in court.

"It's been seven days that have been long and no doubt emotional for you," he told the four men and two women of the jury before excusing them.

In Hennepin County, judges often invite jurors back to their chambers after their service to listen to any advice or comments jurors might have. Moore invited them, but none took him up on it.

The jury's notes gave no indication of how many ballots there'd been or how the vote stood.

Bellecourt said he later ran into a juror outside the courthouse, and the man told him that the final vote was 5-1 for acquittal -- and that it had been that way since their first vote Friday afternoon.

In the first note the jury sent out advising the judge they were deadlocked, on Monday afternoon, the foreman had written that they'd taken "several votes" and didn't believe "any minds will be changed."

Including time spent re-watching video evidence, jurors deliberated nearly 9-1/2 hours over three days.

Assistant City Attorney Clair Cole, who prosecuted the case, told the judge the city intended to retry Bellecourt.

"Just because this jury couldn't reach a verdict doesn't mean another jury can't," he said.

Defense attorney Larry Leventhal asked Moore to declare an acquittal. He said the jury's inability to reach a verdict supported his argument that Bellecourt lacked intent to trespass, an element Cole was obliged to prove to win a conviction.

"I believe that's really the status that we are in," Leventhal, of St. Paul, told Moore.

The judge rejected the request, saying that if the security guard's testimony was to be believed, Bellecourt was told to leave the IDS Center and the warning should have been enough.

"It does seem to me this is a case where there are factual determinations to be made," the judge said, adding that such decisions are what juries are for.

The security guard had testified that he had told the group performing the ritual dance that they had to leave because the ceremony had not been approved by building management.

Bellecourt testified that he didn't hear the announcement because he'd gone to a coffee shop in the skyway level to get a mocha and a cinnamon roll to elevate his blood sugar; he has Type 2 diabetes.

When he returned downstairs, the ceremony was over and most of the people had left. He sat on a bench to drink his mocha, and the guard told him he had to leave. He replied that he'd leave when he finished his drink.

The guard filled out a citizen's arrest form and had Minneapolis police arrest Bellecourt. At one point during the ceremony, a police lieutenant had placed a radio call for every available police officer in the city to come to the IDS Center, as well as the booking van used for mass arrests.

He later canceled the call after the ceremony ended and people started to leave. A handful remained in the Crystal Court -- including some who filmed Bellecourt's arrest -- but the activist was the only person arrested.

Leventhal claimed police targeted Bellecourt because of his history of activism, some of which has been aimed at police practices. One of the American Indian Movement's first initiatives was a program monitoring allegations of police abuse.

Bellecourt also spent five years as co-chairman of the Minneapolis Civilian Police Review Authority, a now-defunct panel set up as part of a federal court settlement stemming from claims of police misconduct and poor officer training.

"They went after Clyde," Leventhal said. "If people came in singing Christmas carols, would they have been arrested or ordered to disperse? I don't think so."

Cole had argued to the jury that Bellecourt wasn't singled out because of who he was, but rather for what he did. He refused repeated demands by police that he leave, the prosecutor said.

Before trial, the city had offered Bellecourt a deal: He could plead guilty to a petty misdemeanor, and the city would recommend there be no punishment.

He declined the deal. "I didn't feel I did anything wrong," he said.

No new trial date has been set.