On May 6, Jeff Zurawski ripped up three large cardboard boxes and taped them together to make a 12-foot banner saying "IMPEACH Bush and Cheney — LIARS."

He and a friend, Sarah Hartfield, then headed to a pedestrian bridge over the Illinois North-South Tollway (I-355) in an unincorporated area of DuPage County. They placed the banner, along with an upside-down American flag, inside the bridge's fencing.

Zurawski, who operates a home inspection business in Downers Grove, said they were there for about an hour and a half when a state trooper stopped by. "He politely asked us to remove our display. He said he was concerned it might distract motorists and increase the risk of an accident."

Zurawski said they took down the flag and banner, but when they were about to leave three DuPage county sheriff's deputies showed up — one of them with a chip on his shoulder.

"The first words out of his mouth were that he got a report that we were throwing things from the bridge," Zurawski said. When he and Hartfield denied the allegation, the deputy took issue with the upside-down flag.

"His face got blood red," Hartfield said. "He was yelling that he was a veteran and we were disrespecting his son who was in Afghanistan … I told him that I lost my cousin in Iraq, that our protest was aimed at the [Bush] administration, not at the troops."

According to Zurawski, the deputy said he "wasn't going to let his personal opinion affect his professional duty," but before leaving he stated that he was going to do "everything in his power to have us arrested."

The protesters said they offered no resistance, gave their contact information to the officers, and were told they were free to leave.

On the morning of May 25, Zurawski walked out of his house just as a deputy was heading toward his door to serve an arrest warrant. Informed that the charge was related to the May 6 incident, a startled Zurawski tried to argue his innocence. "The deputy said, 'We can do this one of two ways. You can be a gentleman and come peacefully, or I can call for help and take you in.'"

Zurawski surrendered and didn't get out of jail for about seven hours. He then called Hartfield, who lives in Naperville but works as a nurse and spends most of her time providing in-home hospice care to a Chicago woman.

After calling Naperville police and verifying that there was a warrant out for her arrest, Hartfield considered turning herself in. "I didn't want [the police] coming to my lady's house and scare her," she said.

Afraid that she might sit in jail for days if she surrendered over Memorial Day weekend, Hartfield waited until after the holiday. "Then I walked myself into the Naperville police station, against every fiber of my being," she said. A deputy handcuffed her, walked her to a police car, and drove her around to the back of the station. She had better luck than Zurawski and got out in two hours.

The complaint accuses Hartfield and Zurawski of disorderly conduct and states, in part:

[…]knowingly without a county permit, staged a war protest on the Great Western Trail overpass in unincorporated DuPage County, Illinois causing the vehicles on the highway (I355) to swerve causing a traffic disturbance because unknown objects were being thrown on the expressway, as well as the American flag being displayed in an upside down manner from the overpass.

Flying the flag upside down is permitted by the U.S. Code of Laws as "as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." Some activists feel the stipulation is applicable to the Iraq war, and no court has yet disagreed.

Hartfield and Zurawski flatly deny the allegation that they threw objects and caused a traffic hazard. They retained attorney Robert Heap, who hasn't returned a call for comment.

"It's ironic," Zurawski said. "I peacefully protest against our criminally dishonest leaders and wind up in jail falsely accused of a crime that doesn't exist because of someone else's lies." On the bright side, he said he has received numerous e-mails from well-wishers and expects to see a large support group at his first court date.

Hartfield said she was initially "devastated" and concerned that the case may affect her future chances of employment because background checks are standard in her line of work. "Then I thought, 'Forget it. The right employer's gonna hire me.' This is a hassle, but it's nothing compared to the more than 600,000 civilians who've died in Iraq. The truth is on our side."

Zurawski is due in court on June 27 at 8:30 a.m. in the DuPage County Judicial Center, 421 N. County Farm Rd., Room 2800, in Wheaton. Hartfield's first court date will be at the same location on July 25 at 8:30 a.m.

The DuPage County State's Attorney's office has not replied to a request for comment.

Stay tuned for new developments.