Massachusetts News 
By John Maguire 

Harry Stewart, the jailed father of two, has gone into his second month behind bars for the crime of refusing to sign a "confession" of violence that was required of him by a private company in order to have a suspended sentence. 

His only crime is that he had opened an apartment door for his five-year-old son. He is being held in the Dedham House of Corrections, a modern 520-man jail on the median strip of Route 128.  

He is being given normal treatment and recreation time although he was initially in a lockup 16 to 20 hours a day without his Bible, his attorney tells Massachusetts News. 

His plight, and the resulting "Free Harry" campaign, has received attention regionally and nationally and has provided negative publicity for Massachusetts and its court system. 

Weekly vigils have been held each Sunday night at the jail. Protesters have held a "Free Harry" banner over the Southeast Expressway. Columnist Cathy Young has written in the Boston Globe and the Washington Times about restraining order problems, using the Stewart case as a focus. Talk shows from various American cities have made Stewart the focus of segments. 

Another Day In Court 

The next step is a Quincy court appearance on October 8, when his attorney, Phyllis J. Field, will ask for a suspension of the sentence pending appeal. She said the court and the DA’s office were delaying setting new hearing dates.  

"They don’t care because Harry’s locked up. You want to scream – look this isn’t like he knifed someone, or did something harmful – this is just a technical violation," she said, "It’s all child pickup-and-drop-off charges." 

Stewart has never been charged with any act of violence. His six-month sentence resulted when he refused to sign a self-incriminating paper required of him by a "batterer’s reeducation program" called Common Purpose.  

The Fatherhood Coalition organized its "Free Harry" campaign to draw attention to the plight of Stewart and many other fathers who, they say, find themselves slapped in jail for the most trivial of actions, like calling a daughter on her birthday or sending a card to a son. Now the group has filed an emergency petition, asking the Supreme Judicial Court to free Harry Stewart and overturn Section 209A as unconstitutional. 

The group gave the petition to both the Governor and the Legislature, asking them to solicit the opinions of the state’s highest court. According to the state constitution, this can be done "upon important questions of law, and upon solemn occasions."  

"The gross and egregious abuses of justice that have fallen on the people of Massachusetts resulting from M.G.L. Ch.209A must be brought to an end now," declared the Fatherhood Coalition’s cover letter. The three-page Emergency Petition listed two requests: 

(1) Suspension of law 209A, Abuse Prevention, pending judicial and public review, or declaration of it as being unconstitutional and void. 

(2) The setting aside of the June 21, 1999 conviction of Reverend Harry J. Stewart for violation of a restraining order "absent any charge of abuse, when he acted responsibly and in the best interest of his child." 

Faces More Charges 

Stewart faces three additional 209A charges, each with a possible two-year sentence involved. Each charge has to do with trivial details about how he picks up and drops off his children during visitation. One violation, for instance, charges him with violating a restraining order because his car was broken and he had to walk to pick up his son for the visit. (The restraining order required him not leave his car when picking up his son.) 

Stewart is in Unit 1B at the median-strip jail and is allowed, like most of the inmates there, to spend the bulk of his day in the jail’s day room or exercise yard. The jail is a beige, brick structure with linoleum floors, built in 1992.  

Attorney Field said her October 8 motion to stay the sentence "is going to be done with an eye for filing it right away in the Appellate Division and asking for an early appeals hearing date." 

"I saw Harry on September 14th in court," said Field. "He looked thin and drawn, but still vigilant enough to go forward on his case. He’s heartened by the support he’s received, all the cards and letters he has gotten." The national publicity has drawn interest from both NBC and CBS national news, she said.  

Says It’s Unconstitutional 

In its petition to the S.J.C., The Fatherhood Coalition stressed both Harry Stewart’s innocence and the Constitutional issues involved. The petition statement, in part, said:  

"Both Family Court practices and the restraining order laws need to incorporate the highest level of due process afforded when such fundamental rights as the care and companionship of one’s children, liberty, and property rights, are so profoundly at risk. Abuse, prejudice, and outright persecution is rampant; and these matters scream out with constitutional violations of the highest and most severe form.... 

"... [I]t is an intolerable condition that an innocent, law-abiding man and loving father can be charged with the commission of a crime, tried, and jailed under color of law for opening a foyer door to assist his son while exercising visitation. These ‘crimes’ only exist to punish non-custodial fathers. This is thoroughly alien to any rational interpretation of what constitutes a free society." 

The citizen group has printed FREE HARRY bumper stickers, and posts the latest news about the Stewart case on its website, Bumper stickers are available at 617-723-3237. 
 

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