Jeffery Rae, a prominent Occupy Wall Street protester whose on-the-ground Twitter reporting is followed by thousands, has been subpoenaed by the New York District Attorney’s office to appear in court.
And the office has instructed him to bring his tweets with him—as evidence against himself.
“You are commanded to appear before the criminal court of the County of New York as a witness in a criminal action prosecuted by the People of the State of New York against Jeffery Rae,” the subpoena reads.
It also says he must “produce” in court all tweets that came from his account, @jeffrae, from Sept. 15 to Oct. 31 of last year, “as a witness in a criminal action.”
The subpoena doesn’t specify his charges, but according to the New York State Court website, On Oct. 1st, 2011, Rae received two charges of disorderly conduct and one charge of “Horse/unauthorized Riding/ltd Use Vehicle.” That’s an exact quote.
Rae tweeted after his arrested that he was charged with “failure to obey order, prohibited use of roadway, and blocking traffic.”
Oct. 1st was the day more than 700 Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested for marching across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Rae was one of those arrested, and his tweets from that day revealed a step-by-step account of the crowd’s movement and protesters’ arrest.
