Adam 'Ademo' Mueller, Journalist And CopBlock.org Founder, Faces 21 Years In Jail After Reporting School Police Brutality

Adam "Ademo" Mueller, a journalist and co-host of radio show Free Talk Live, is facing 21 years in prison for reporting on police brutality toward students at a Manchester, N.H. high school.

Mueller, also founder of CopBlock.org, has been charged with three felony counts of wiretapping, each of which carries a 7-year maximum penalty. CopBlock.org is an online project that, according to its site, seeks police accountability and "curtail the all-too-common rights-violations and unaccountability that today exists."

Last October, video surfaced on CopBlock.org of 17-year-old Frank W. Harrington being lifted from his seat in the school cafeteria by a school police officer and slammed face-first into a table.

At the time, Harrington took his sister's purse and said he was "just messing around." Although the West High School teen said his sister was largely unconcerned, school officials involved school resource officer Darren Murphy, who lifted Harrington off his seat, spun him around, forced him onto the table and arrested him.

Harrington was suspended for 12 days and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Michael Proulx, the 17-year-old junior at the school who recorded the incident, was also told by a school official that it's "illegal to film," and ordered to delete anything he had recorded. Proulx lied, saying he had only taken photos, and pretended to erase them.

In response, Mueller took to CopBlock.org to defend both Proulx and Harrington, noting in a report that "Murphy provides the misguided administrator an exact example why filming police is important -- oh, and it's not illegal at all." He also called the Manchester police department and the school seeking comment.

But he chose to record the conversations he had with a Manchester police captain, the Manchester High School West principal and a school secretary, and then included soundbites in a video post. The wiretapping indictments came a few months later, and he is accused of recording the conversations without the other parties' consent.

Mueller has been offered a plea deal of a two-year suspended sentence, which he is refusing.

"Here's how I see the offer: it's a stellar deal if I actually thought what I had done was wrong," Mueller wrote in a post on CopBlock.org. "First, I can't go against my principles and sign a deal that says I acknowledge my actions as wrong or illegal. Second, I'm not a hypocrite. How can I advocate refusing plea deals and sign one myself? I don't judge anyone who has taken pleas because each case/charge is different. Third, I am confident I can show a jury, with facts and logic, that I shouldn't be caged for my actions.... Let the circus begin!"

A "Free Ademo" campaign has already launched to support Mueller, including attending Monday's jury selection at the local courthouse. New Hampshire recently passed a jury nullification law that permits defense attorneys to inform jurors of their right to vote on conscience and void bad laws through "not guilty" verdicts.

"A public official who is on duty and in a public space has no expectation of privacy. The First Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled on this in Glik vs. Cunniff," Ian Freeman, co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live, said in a CNN iReport. "The person who should face consequences is the officer who threw that poor kid into a table during lunch at the school cafeteria, not the journalist who reported about it."

If you hate Laurence, then don't listen - don't comment. When he co-hosts the B&B show, take that day off ... listen to an old podcast of a Bernstein solo show and jerk off all day.

I would understand police not wanting people to be taping them and recording them. That leads to idiots provoking them into doing/saying something stupid and only recording the reaction and leaving out the build up that caused it.

Look what you made me do!

If you hate Laurence, then don't listen - don't comment. When he co-hosts the B&B show, take that day off ... listen to an old podcast of a Bernstein solo show and jerk off all day.

I would understand police not wanting people to be taping them and recording them. That leads to idiots provoking them into doing/saying something stupid and only recording the reaction and leaving out the build up that caused it.

I am not a legal expert, how many times do I have to say it?

That's why tapes prevent people from seeing stuff like this. The cops were clearly provoked that the guy that fell out of the car. There was nothing else for them to do other than beat the shit out of a likely unconscious criminal.

But he chose to record the conversations he had with a Manchester police captain, the Manchester High School West principal and a school secretary, and then included soundbites in a video post. The wiretapping indictments came a few months later, and he is accused of recording the conversations without the other parties' consent.

That guy is lucky Zimmerman wasnt there. He would have killed him in self defense.

One cop did slip. Who knows what the unconscious guy could have done to him on the ground. I'm disappointed in the pussy officer that didn't hit the guy to protect himself and his fellow officers.

You know how people say that we can't give up the right to free speech even when we don't like it like the Westboro people?

Well, it is illegal to record conversations without notifying the person(without a warrant). Isn't this the same thing? For various reasons, people have the right to not be recorded like this.

It sounds like they tried to give him a way out because clearly those laws weren't designed to stop things like this.

Not the same thing. They were public officials on duty in a public space. Not private citizens. The DA is trying to give him a way out of this because it's already been ruled that what you are talking about is not the same thing. That's near the bottom of the article I posted.

Why don't the cops just have those mini cameras attached to them so everything they see, hear, and do when they are out on patrol is recorded? They already have cameras on the dashboard of the cop cars, why not just extend it further? The technology is available to do that. It should also cut down on lawsuits when people claimed they are abused.

If you hate Laurence, then don't listen - don't comment. When he co-hosts the B&B show, take that day off ... listen to an old podcast of a Bernstein solo show and jerk off all day.

You dont think people do that to cops? They shouldnt abuse their power but I also dont take the default stance that they were 100% to blame. Each case is different.

Guilty on all three counts. Guess you have to be a government official to be above the illegal wiretapping laws.

Why don't the cops just have those mini cameras attached to them so everything they see, hear, and do when they are out on patrol is recorded? They already have cameras on the dashboard of the cop cars, why not just extend it further? The technology is available to do that. It should also cut down on lawsuits when people claimed they are abused.

Looks like he'll spend 3 months in jail, and likely be famous because of it.

I doubt it. Unless there's other FTL listeners on the board I doubt anyone has heard of Adam Mueller before I posted this. He's just gonna go back to his journalism/activism work.

This will become a bigger story. The media loves stories like this because of obvious reasons.