Trespass Charges Dismissed Against #ResignBrannigan Protesters

PALOS HILLS, IL — The #ResignBrannigan Coalition will be holding a socially distanced teach-in rally on Oct. 12 celebrating its court victory after charges were dropped against five members charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing at a Palos Township Board meeting in 2019.

Muhammad Sakari, 31, and Husam Marajda, 28, both of Chicago, Samar Alhato, 22, of Worth, along with Bassem S. Karver, 30, of Tinley Park, and Tammy J. Georgiou, 50, of Palos Hills were each facing a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing over claims they ignored requests to sit down and be quiet during a Palos Township board meeting on June 10, 2019.

Activists and members from the southwest suburban Arab-American and Muslim community have been turning out at the Palos Township board’s monthly meetings for over three years demanding the resignation of Tr. Sharon Brannigan over posts she made about Muslims in 2017.

A post reportedly made by Brannigan on her official Palos Township trustee Facebook page in 2017 questioned what Palos planned to do about what she perceived as the growing number of Middle Eastern students enrolled in the township's public schools among other comments.

The five activists, who faced sentences ranging from probation and fines to up to 364 days in Cook County Jail, opted for a bench trial before Cook County Associate Judge Margaret Ogarek at the Bridgeview Courthouse. Much of the trial last January focused on security video, on which members of the public can be heard chanting “racist” and “Brannigan lies.”

Frank Esposito, a former police officer and owner of Professional Protection Specialists, Esposito said that a large gathering had already assembled outside the Palos Township office at 10802 S. Roberts Road, Palos Hills when he and his officers arrived.

"Prior to the meeting, I told the officers that we wouldn't go 'hands on,'" Esposito told the court. "The board gave us the nod, because [the audience was] creating a riotous situation. We feared it would become a riot.”

The defendants' pro bono attorney, James Fennerty, argued that the five activists weren't given proper notice to leave the meeting. Esposito and another Professional Protection Specialists security guard, Todd Damsky, both testified under cross examination they heard the other order the defendants to leave or face arrest.

The verdict was delayed because of the pandemic. On Oct. 1, the judge delivered her verdict virtually over Zoom. Ogarek stated that the testimony of all three state witnesses, which included two of the hired security guards and Brannigan contradicted each other and did not establish evidence of criminal trespass to state land, according to a news release from the Arab American Action Network.

The Cook County assistant state’s attorneys were also unable to establish which of the five defendants, if any, were responsible for any alleged disruption during the Palos Township meetings.

"This important legal victory uplifts what organizers with the #ResignBrannigan Coalition have said from the beginning,"Husam Marajda said in a news release, one of the leaders of the coalition. "That it is well within people’s rights to hold their elected representatives accountable, especially when these officials spew vile and racist hatred against members of the communities they purportedly represent."

Brannigan, who has publicly stated she supports President Donald Trump, blamed Professional Protection Specialists for the verdict. She accused the security team hired by the township in June 2019 for its failure “to do their job as specifically instructed by the township attorney and supervisor.”

“I was very disappointed with Professional Protection Specialists' lack of professionalism and due diligence,” Brannigan said in an email to Patch.

Professional Protections Specialists’ phone number was disconnected during attempts to reach the firm for comment. An email was not returned. The township has since hired a new security firm.

“I don’t expect that the new company hired will forgo their responsibilities to the township and I will not hesitate to again file complaints against any unruly or not provoking ‘people,’” Brannigan said.

Members of the #ResignBrannigan Coalition have continued to escalate their protests for Brannigan’s resignation.

The embattled Palos Township trustee said that “due to the China Virus COVID-19” the township board has had been holding its monthly meetings on Zoom.

“The protesters are allowed to speak and have spoken/screamed there,” she said. “Again, the same out-of-towners with nothing further to add to their complaints.”

Last month, the coalition organized a caravan to Brannigan’s home “to alert her neighbors of [Brannigan’s] anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigrant racism.”

Brannigan called the protesters and AAAN’s caravan before the township board’s Sept. 14 meeting “absolutely disrespectful.”

“[T]he protesters showed up at my home scaring the young children [and] circling my neighborhood, blowing their car horns, screaming out the windows with bullhorns,” Brannigan said, “and all in all acting like childish, uneducated and misguided fools.”

Brannigan added that photos were taken of all the vehicles that passed by her home and forwarded to the police for their records keeping and investigation “if needed.”

The #ResignBrannigan Coalition maintain Brannigan’s racist statements, like President Trump’s, have emboldened white supremacists in the Palos Township area.

“Unlike Trump, the coalition has no problem condemning white supremacists, as well as demanding that this specific one, Sharon Brannigan, resign her position immediately, in advance of next April's trustee elections,” the coalition said in a written statement.

The Arab American Action Network’s in-person teach-in and rally will start at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12t, atat 7000 W. 111th Street, Worth. RSVP on the Facebook event page.