It was sometime in high school when it was just another night doing homework. My mom was laid up in bed with a very injured knee. My brother, Josh, was traveling the US as he typically did in his age. I was listening to some music, nothing in particular, when the telephone rang. An unknown caller. Typically in my household, just like many, wouldn't have answered this telephone call. Taking a chance, I answered the phone. "Is this Joshua Banno's mother?" An unfamiliar and wary voice was on the other line and knowing from these five words, something was wrong. "Yeah, let me get her." This was going to be nothing as we suspected. So I quickly ran the phone into my mother's room that was located right across from my room and handed the phone to my mom "Some guy wants to talk to you." My mom answers the phone in her cheery voice "HELLO?".I sat there patiently to see what this unfamiliar voice was calling on behalf of. My mother's face went pale. She sat a listened, maybe only for a few seconds before she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and began writing. I sat there on her bed and watch her slowly sink into her chair as if it were pulling her in. I could tell from her face that she was confused, lost between crying and trying to hold herself together. A few minutes later she hung up. "Josh has been arrested in NYC and is faced with a $200,000 bail." SHOCK. "WHAT'S GOING ON? WHAT HAPPENED?" All questions of which my mother could not answer. I thought to myself, $200,000 is a lot of money, something really really bad must have happened. What kind of trouble was he in this time, I thought to myself. Questions were running through my head faster than I could finish the whole question. Memories flashed through my head, Josh and I playing in the snow, Josh and I on the beach, Josh and I growing up together, spending all those years together. What if I could never really see him or hang out with him again? Image,Question,Image,Question or what is Question, Image, Question, Image that were flying through my head? To this day I still don't remember exactly what I was thinking at that time. My eyes began to water as I hugged my mother who have seemed to age within seconds of hanging up the phone.
BEFORE:
The New York Times
April 15, 2005
Student's Arrest at G.O.P. Convention Puts His Life in Limbo
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Yusuke Joshua Banno is a college student from Arizona marooned in Manhattan. In his old life, he would be feeding his two chickens, riding his bike and working in the maintenance department of the student union. He would also be graduating next month.
Instead, Mr. Banno is answering phones at a Midtown restaurant, Blockhead's Burritos, to help pay legal expenses. He has fallen a semester behind at Prescott College in Tucson, and is learning more about criminal law than he ever cared to know.
The change in Mr. Banno's life dates from August, when he traveled by bus to New York City to join crowds of protesters at the Republican National Convention.
He was arrested on Aug. 29 and was charged with assault and reckless endangerment, accused of igniting a papier-mâché dragon. For months he has proclaimed his innocence, saying that in the chaos of the crowd, the police just picked the wrong person. Last week, prosecutors seemed to agree, after concluding that a police officer had misidentified Mr. Banno.
Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office said the case would probably be dismissed.
Behind the story of Mr. Banno's legal travails, there is a personal one. It is a tale of the obstacles and financial hardships faced by an ordinary family in a case that appears likely to be dismissed, like so many others from convention week. As of last month, about 80 percent of the convention arrests had been dismissed, adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, or ended in acquittals, according to statistics from the district attorney's office.
Beyond the immediate problem of the charges, which could have brought Mr. Banno a prison term of up to seven years, money was a serious concern. His lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, took the case for a very low fee, but it would still cost thousands of dollars to take to trial.
For Mr. Banno's mother, Betty Jo Banno, who learned of his arrest while watching television at home in Prescott, Ariz., the amount of her son's bail, $200,000, came as an early shock.
"I just couldn't believe it; I thought it couldn't be real," she said, sitting on a couch in a Midtown apartment that she sublet for herself, her son and out-of-towners involved in the case. "The first thing I thought was, 'I don't have $200,000.' "
"They said, 'What do you have?' and I said, 'I can use my house as collateral.' "
Mr. Banno's friends mobilized for his defense. They held a potluck party in Tucson. One friend started a Web site. Another sold T-shirts. His college put out a jar for donations. A friend, Toby Fraser, watched dozens of hours of videotape at the National Lawyers Guild, an advocacy group for change in political and economic matters.
Mr. Banno spent six days in jail, avoiding the meat dishes and eating canned string beans, mashed potatoes and grits. He was not allowed to make long-distance phone calls, so Ms. Shroff arranged a conference call so he and his mother could talk.
Eventually, Mr. Banno's bail was reduced to $10,000. Mrs. Banno wiped out nearly half her savings to send the bail money. As the case wound its way through the legal system, Mr. Banno's trial was delayed five times, Ms. Shroff said. Mrs. Banno bought plane tickets for herself, Ms. Shroff, Mr. Fraser and four witnesses.
In January, Mrs. Banno took a leave from her job to help with the trial preparations. She took out a $55,000 home equity loan to cover her family's living expenses. In all, she said, she has spent about $30,000 on the case.
"I used to feel pretty free going out to eat and taking a trip to visit my mom in Hawaii," Mrs. Banno said. "All of that has pretty much stopped."
The ordeal has created plenty of tension for Mr. Banno's extended family in Japan. His father, who is Japanese and works in Fukuoka as a yoga teacher, was told by his relatives that his son's arrest had shamed them. Mrs. Banno has not heard from her in-laws since then.
After months of pressing the case for Mr. Banno's innocence, a big break came late last month, when Ms. Shroff and Mr. Fraser tracked down time-sequence photographs taken by a Daily News photographer that showed Mr. Banno was far from where the fire began. A week later, prosecutors stated in court that the officer had misidentified Mr. Banno, and yesterday a spokeswoman said that the case would probably be dropped.
For Mrs. Banno, it was not a moment too soon.
"I want our calm life back," she said. "I can't wait to go home."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Democracy Now.org
NY Prosecutors To Drop Charges in High Profile RNC Arrest
Meanwhile the New York District Attorney’s office is preparing to dismiss charges connected to one of the convention’s most high profiled arrests. On August 29, police arrested 21-year-old Joshua Banno of Arizona. He was jailed for six days with a bail originally set at $200,000. He was accused of setting a large papier-mache dragon float on fire during a protest. He faced a series of charges including assault of a police officer. Last week in court, the DA’s office announced they had misidentified Banno. Video and photographs have emerged that disputes an undercover police officer’s claim that Banno set the fire. The case fell apart after Banno’s attorneys tracked down time-sequence photographs taken by a news photographer that showed him to be far from where the fire began. For Banno the false charges altered his family’s life. He had faced seven years in jail. He had been forced to move to New York to work on his defense. His mother had to refinance her house and took a leave from her job. His father disowned him. Banno told Newsday last week “I feel like I’m waking up from a terrible nightmare. It’s absolutely wonderful.”
Video Link:
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/4/19/new_york_district_attorney_forced_to
