Charges Dropped Against Man who Recorded Police Arresting Black Men

Martell Miller was happy to hear the news that he no longer faces serious felony eavesdropping charges for recording the actions of local police at work. Assistant State's Attorney Elizabeth Dobson,  asked Presiding Judge Tom Difanis early Friday afternoon to dismiss them, which he did. Miller is one of the founding members of a citizens' group called Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults -- VEYA -- which had been tape-recording, with a video camera, stops of young black men by local police for a few months. Miller's colleague and another founding member of VEYA, Patrick Thompson, 35, helped Miller in the production of a 40-minute documentary that was a compilation of some of their recordings. That was also seized as part of the police investigation into the eavesdropping complaints, but was shown at the Champaign Public Library and Boardman's Art Theatre earlier this month. The charges against Miller were two counts of a Class 1 felony alleging on Aug. 7 he tape-recorded conversations between two University of Illinois police officers and a man they had stopped in Champaign and he had also recorded a conversation between two Champaign officers and a man they stopped in Champaign.  [more ]