Contact: Matthew Scott Martin
Law Office of Matthew Scott Martin,
503 N. Main St., Ste. 528
Pueblo CO 81003
LLC
Phone 719-545-0027
Fax 800-886-7450 matthew@mattmartinlaw.com
Pueblo, Colorado, November 19, 2015: On the eve of a hearing challenging the constitutionality of Pueblo’s ordinance governing the issuance or denial of parade permits by the Chief of
Police, the Pueblo Municipal Court has dismissed a parading without a permit charge and three other charges against Janet Wilson, one of the organizers of Pueblo’s 2015 Cinco de Mayo Parade. Ms.
Wilson was charged with staging the 2015 Cinco de Mayo Parade without a permit, but she challenged
Pueblo’s parade permitting ordinance as a violation of her First Amendment rights. Earlier this week, Ms.
Wilson and the City of Pueblo entered into an agreement whereby trial on the remaining charges (driving under the minimum speed limit and obstructing traffic) will be postponed for six months, and then dismissed, if she pays court costs of $175.00 (which she has) and does not commit any criminal offenses or municipal ordinance violations during that time. The agreement did not require any admission of guilt by Ms. Wilson, nor was the court required to rule on the validity of the ordinance.
Ms.Wilson is an executive board member of Eastside Action Support Team (E.A.S.T.), a nonprofit group committed to improving and beautifying Pueblo’s eastside community, improving the public’s security and safety, easing neighborhood tensions, and bringing awareness to the public of the eastside’s cultural richness and diversity. In early 2015, E.A.S.T. decided to organize a Cinco de Mayo parade on Pueblo’s eastside to give people an opportunity to celebrate the occasion and to bring attention to Pueblo’s eastside.
Most people love parades, and they especially love that the First Amendment protects their rights to freely express their ideas, including unpopular ones, on a city’s streets, sidewalks and parks. Ms. Wilson now knows that a police chief’s unfettered discretion in setting conditions for the issuance of a parade permit can squash one’s right to freely express themselves. “Pueblo’s parade permitting ordinance is unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment since it allows the chief of police to set whatever conditions he wants to set on any parade,” according to Ms. Wilson’s attorney, Matthew Scott Martin of
Pueblo. “The lack of specific articulated bases in Pueblo’s ordinance is illegal because it permits the
For Immediate Release more

Page 2 Parading Without a Permit Charges against Cinco Parade Organizer Dismissed chief’s decision-making process to be impacted by social and political pressures. While the Pueblo
Municipal Court is fully capable of deciding whether Pueblo’s parade permitting ordinance violates the
First Amendment, the best forum for this challenge is in the federal district court in Denver.”