I was supposed to appear in court today, and I didn't. I got my court date continued successfully, and late this afternoon I got a phone call from the
public defender, who updated me on my case as best he could.
I am being charged with a group of 13 other people, none of whom I know, and the charges aren't necessarily applied equally to everyone in the group. Apparently, charging the arrestees was complicated, and the public defenders had to demur due to the vagueness of the police reports, which were uninformative. Arrestees were charged in groups partly to save on paperwork, a fact I could not make up.
The group I am apparently being affiliated with is charged with:
Essentially, the charges are rioting, planning to riot, rioting without a permit, and staying at a riot, which to my mind boils down to rioting, but hey, I don't write the laws.
Because of the conspiracy charge, the judge decided that it would be a conflict of interests for any one attorney to represent more than one arrestee, and will thus be appointing private attorneys to represent the vast majority of those arrested. The first two defendants will have separate court appointed attorneys, but as there are only two public defenders in the county, the rest of us are getting farmed out. This is a good thing, since being tried in a group carries assumptions of guilt with it - it's harder to exhonorate a group than an individual. Having a private attorney could also be good, since public defenders are notoriously stressed out. I will be assigned an attorney on my new court date, which is May 21. Until then, I'll be freaking out quietly.