Six Found Guilty at Wellmark Trial
DES MOINES—Six of the nine arrested at Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Headquarters were found guilty on Monday, November 23, 2009, in Polk County Court in Des Moines, Iowa.
Ed Bloomer, 62, Kirk Brown, 29, Rev. Robert Cook, 66, Frank Cordaro, 58, Mona Shaw, 58, and Leonard Simons, 67, were convicted by a six-member of jury for Criminal Trespass, a simple misdemeanor.
The conviction followed a three-day trial that at times left jurors near tears and nearly applauding following testimony by the defendants. During the trail several defendants told wrenching stories of loved ones they'd lost because they could not afford they care they needed to live. (During the jury selection process, two jurors had disclosed they had Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance and were battling for payment for care for themselves.)
The conviction was somewhat surprising since the judge's instructions to the jury pointed toward an acquittal. The six above along with Renee Espeland, 48, Christine Gaunt, 50, and Frankie Hughes, 11, were arrested on July 27 in the lobby of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield after they stated they were remaining until they were given the company's financial information requested in a letter sent a month earlier.
The defense sought acquittal based on the interplay between two laws in the State of Iowa Code. First, Iowa law stipulates that a person is guilty of trespassing if that person remains on private property "without justification." Second, another Iowa law stipulates that the policy holder of a company may have access to corporate records at any time. This law also allows for the policy holder to bring assistants to gather those records. Two of the original defendants (Espeland and Gaunt) are policy holders of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. William Price, the judge in the case seemed inclined to give the defendants the fairest trial possible under the law and gave instructions to the jury that could clearly lead to the acquittal of the defendants. Specific in the judge's instructions was that unless the jury believed beyond a reasonable doubt "the defendants did NOT enter Wellmark with the intent to assist a policy holder in exercising the policyholder's right inspect business records," they must find the defendants NOT guilty.
Ironically charges against Espeland were dropped the morning of the trial because the State believed Espeland did have a legal right to be there. (Christine Gaunt had filed a guilty plea in October because she was not available the date of the trial.)
It was revealed in the trial that Fusion (the State and Federal Homeland Security, Intelligence, and Law Enforcement Center) had, for some time been monitoring the activities of Des Moines Catholic Workers and had been in ongoing communication with Wellmark executives about the defendants.
At sentencing each of the defendants expressed grief for the lives lost because of the State's complicity in preventing the defendants' access to the information essential to save those lives. Defendant Frank Cordaro punctuated the rabid greed of health insurance companies and their strangle-hold on Congress by singing a verse of "Money Makes the World Go 'Round" from the musical Cabaret.
At sentencing, the State pointedly recommended the heaviest consequences including ten times the minimum fine or $625 plus court costs for Cook and Simons and the maximum fine allowed by law for Bloomer, Brown, Cordaro and Shaw of thirty days in jail.
The Judge, however, sentenced all defendants to a $150 fine. Plus court costs. When Bloomer and Cordaro told they judge they would not pay their fines, both were given 72 hours in jail. Following the sentence, the judge informed Bloomer and Cordaro that he could not order their prescriptions be administered because the county jail is now privatized and no longer under Court authority for such matters.
101,000 people die annually due to lack of access to healthcare. Pending legislation in Congress still fails to make a dent in that massive loss of life, although it increases the profits of private health insurance immensely.
The Des Moines Catholic Worker continues to hold its weekly vigil before the entrance to Wellmark Blue Cross Shield every Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and will continue to do until all have equal access to the same healthcare regardless of their ability to pay for it. The DMCW also resists laws that criminalize those who do not purchase private insurance.
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Nine were originally arrested on July 27.
In this photo, left-to-right are Frank Cordaro, Leonard Simons, Mona Shaw, Kirk Brown, Frankie Hughes, Renee Espeland, Christine Gaunt, Ed Bloomer, and Rev. Robert Cook