TULSA, Okla. — Four years later, a former Tulsa teacher is found not guilty in the misdemeanor trial stemming from her arrest at the 2020 Trump rally.
2 News caught Sheila Buck's arrest on camera during the protest.
Sheila Buck taught for 30 years—many of those, she says, in North Tulsa. She testified she wore a George Floyd “I can’t breathe” t-shirt to the rally because she wanted to take a stand for students after witnessing inequalities in North Tulsa.
Buck was charged with obstructing an officer after refusing to leave a fenced-off area outside the BOK Center for the event. She told the officer she had a ticket, but the officer told her event staff did not want her there.
Officer Matt Parker testified for the prosecution and jurors watched his body camera footage from that day, which was over an hour long. It showed the moments leading to her arrest to her trip to jail.
WATCH: Tulsa police released body cam footage of Buck's arrest:
The defense focused on a portion of that footage where Parker initially arrested her for trespassing.
He mentioned the “trespassing” complaint multiple times in the footage. However, his supervisor, Lieutenant Chris Witt, later called Parker’s cell phone. Witt, according to testimony, was not on site to witness what took place but had Parker change the arrest complaint to obstruction.
Prosecutors tried to convince jurors that “willfully“ refusing to leave when ordered is obstruction. Prosecutors also argued Buck’s actions constituted an obstruction because she hindered the officer from doing his job at the rally. They asked jurors for at least the minimum sentence, which would be a fine of up to $1000.
The defense argued if taking a criminal to jail is obstructing an officer’s job, then every crime would be obstruction. Her attorneys argued it was her First Amendment right to sit on that sidewalk, and they won.
“I am so happy and relieved that it’s over,” said Buck, after the verdict. “I feel like, as an American, I have to stand up for the Constitution, and hopefully, the Constitution will stand up for me.”
“And that is why we saw the state ask the jury not to put her in jail, just find her guilty,” said Buck’s attorney Dan Smolen. “Just trying to cut off their liability and trying to waste taxpayers money through a misdemeanor crime prosecutors should have dismissed four years ago.”
Buck now lives in Kansas City and said she lost friends over this but felt it was something she had to do.
Buck also filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Tulsa, which is still pending.
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