He had an American flag with him---a flag that he wanted to wave on the Courthouse lawn.
MPD officers stopped Ted and told him that he couldn't take his American flag on the pole onto the Courthouse lawn. Ted objected, loudly. Ted was taken down to the ground by several MPD officers. He was tasered and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Today a jury found Ted Mitchell not guilty of resisting arrest but guilty of disorderly conduct for shouting and arguing with the officers over the flag.
He was fined $25 and given a 30-day sentence that was suspended.
Ted never got to the rally. Those who did attend the rally were greeted by an unbelievably massive presence of law enforcement.
The local criminal trial is over.
Still pending, however, is a civil lawsuit that Ted filed in federal court against the City of Morristown, Hamblen County, and several elected officials.
In his civil suit, Ted has also named the officers who arrested him, tasered him, and refused to let him take his American flag on an aluminum pole to an anti-illegal immigration rally on the Hamblen County Courthouse lawn.
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