Despite encouragement from his attorney and family to pay the $100 necessary to free him from jail, Carl Rising-Moore has decided to stay locked up. He said he didn’t want anybody paying for the bond. “It’s a decision on principle and I’m a man of principles who sticks to his decisions,” Rising-Moore told his attorney, Greg Bowes.

 

Accused of fleeing from and punching an Indianapolis Police Department officer during a protest after President Bush’s visit to Indianapolis on May 13, Rising-Moore was initially held on $30,000 bail. But, after hearing testimony from several character witnesses Tuesday afternoon, Judge Linda Brown lowered the bail amount to $1,000. Bowes knew his client wouldn’t accept even that amount, which would require a bond of 10 percent of the total, or $100, for release. Bowes told Judge Brown this immediately after she announced her decision. “He won’t pay any bond because he’s being held for something he didn’t do,” Bowes said.

 

Rising-Moore, a local political activist with a long history of non-violent protest, then told the judge his philosophy of truth, learned from Gandhi, wouldn’t allow him to pay anything. Brown said, “My decision stands.” At that point, Brown could have changed her ruling. “She heard what Carl said before she closed the case,” Bowes said. Now, Bowes is filing an appeal to the decision. But that process will probably take longer than the time until Rising-Moore’s July 8 court date.

 

“I’m going ask the appeals court to put this on as tight a schedule as they can,” Bowes said. “But this is a very involved process.” Bowes has asked the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to drop the charges or release Rising-Moore without bail. “They haven’t been receptive to those ideas,” he said. Officials at the Prosecutor’s Office had no comment.

 

Thirty friends and family members attended Tuesday’s bail hearing to support Rising-Moore. Several spoke on his behalf, including IUPUI law professor Mary Margaret Mitchell. She protested the war in Iraq alongside Rising-Moore over the last year and made it clear she saw no propensity for violence in him. “I cannot imagine anyone being less of a danger to the community,” she said. “This man is one of my heroes.”

 

While IPD officer Thomas Wilson hasn’t changed his story about the incident, several witnesses — other protestors and neutral observers alike — have said Rising-Moore didn’t punch Wilson after being tackled as he ran alongside the presidential motorcade waving a United Nations flag. “He didn’t resist. He just sat there and they pretty much manhandled him,” said Jason Jones, a protester who witnessed the incident along 38th Street. “The police report is just an outright lie.”