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Protester arrest leads to webstreaming controversy at Ulster County Legislature

Mar 31, 2018 12:20 am
Patricia R. Doxsey reports in The Daily Freeman Ulster County Minority Leader Hector Rodriguez wants the county to reevaluate the county legislature’s relationship with a company that owns a building in Kingston, that had a protester arrested for trespassing in its parking lot. Community activist Callie Jayne was arrested during one of many protests against Rep. John Faso (R-Kinderhook), who has an office in the Seven21 Media Center building in Kingston. That building is owned by Dara Ellenbogen, the vice president and chief operating officer of Ellenbogen Creative Media, which gets $17,000 a year from Ulster County to create a live webstream of its meetings. “The way I see it and the way anybody who was there sees it, she was targeted,” said Rodriguez. “Given the fact that we’ve had this many people there protesting and the only woman who gets ticketed is a black woman says a lot.... I don’t want to do business with people who would target someone like this.” But Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk disagrees. “What happens with their private property ... has nothing at all to do with the Ulster County Legislature, the county of Ulster or the Legislature’s contract with Ellenbogen,” Ronk said. “What happens between them and Ms. Jayne and the criminal justice system is not the business of the Ulster County Legislature.” Ellenbogen and Jayne refused to comment to the paper. Kingston Court Justice Philip Kirschner dismissed the charges against Jayne earlier in the week, as long as she isn’t charged with trespassing on the property in the next six months. Read the full story in The Daily Freeman.