[permalink] On December 1st, 2005, three of the five defendants in the Arlington Heights 5 arraignment were arrested for tardiness to court because of traffic and weather conditions, according to the People's Newswire.

Judge Joseph J. Urso, the presiding judge of the Third Municipal District located in Rolling Meadows, IL, ordered arrest warrants for the four absent defendants just before three of them arrived. As of this writing one arrest warrant remains for an activist who did not show up for court.

National Lawyers Guild lawyer James Fennerty informed the court that the defendants had arrived and the judge subsequently had them arrested and taken for processing. The arrestees were taken to Cook County Jail at 26th & California in Chicago. Bail was set at $500 apiece.

According to one defendant, two of the arrestees were released around 1am and the third around 2am after being held in custody for nearly 17 hours. The five activists are currently being offered a plea bargain of thirty days in jail, most likely at Cook County, which they are contesting.

Defendants would like as much support as possible at their next hearing:

The Arlington Heights 5
Location: District 3, 2121 Euclid Avenue, Rolling Meadows, IL
Room: 104
Date: Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Time: 8:30am

Another activist, Giuseppe, was arrested and banned from DePaul University's campus. He requests the attendance of other activists at his trial.

Location: 555 West Harrison
Date: Monday, January 9, 2006
Time: 9:00am

Some victories in court earlier in the week for Chicago activists included a DePaul Students Against the War activist having his citation dropped for swearing at Mayor Richard M. Daley at the Colombus Day Parade and two activists having their charges dropped for obstruction at the Anarchist Halloween Parade. Read the original article here.

For other ways to help or anyone who was a witness to the arrests of the Arlington Heights 5, please email streetmilitant (at) yahoo.com and EricAntiFa (at) yahoo.com with a phone number or email address you can be reached at. Anyone with photographs or footage of the arrests will be especially useful. Both the Arlington Heights 5 and Giuseppe request donations for their legal defenses.