Judge Dismisses Final Two Chess Tickets Issued In Playground

The final two tickets issued in the controversial case involving adult chess players in a upper Manhattan playground were dismissed today after the tickets were found to be "defective."

Attorney Norman Siegel brought to the attention of the court that the summons issued by the NYPD were written for people being in the playground after the park was closed. Mr. Siegel pointed out that it was 2:00 pm in the afternoon of Ocotober 20, 2010 when the tickets were issued.

On December 28, Yacahudah "YA" Harrison and Chris Perlata rejected a plea deal from a Manhattan Criminal Court judge and instead opted for a trial. They along with five others were issued tickets for playing chess in Emerson Playground in Inwood Hill Park in October. Under Parks Department rules playgrounds are off-limits to adults without children under 12. That rule however is arbitrarily enforced.

"I was pleased that the cloud of criminality was removed from these men but there are serious policy questions that have to be addressed," Norman Siegel said after the hearing. "One, the Police Department. Why they did what they did. This is quintessential abuse of discretion. Two: We have to begin a discussion with the Parks Department concerning the policy because people have a right a play chess in the park and by the same token children have a right to be in the park. They are not mutually exclusive. We can, in fact, need to do both.

Mr. Siegel said he has plans to call the general council and begin discussions.

"Although justice has been done for these guys, justice still hasn't been done and I will not rest until I can clearly say check-mate."

Many members of the general public regularly eat lunch inside the city's one thousand playgrounds without having children, and the city does not prevent the public from entering hundreds of bathrooms which are located inside playgrounds.

The Parks Department declined comment.

"Police acted appropriately in issuing criminal summonses to men in a section of Inwood Hill Park restricted to children with their parents or other minors," NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne said in a statement to A Walk In The Park. "The precinct conditions team there responded to community complaints about drinking, drug use and other problems, including violations of Park Department regulations designed to protect children.

Mr. Brown listed prior arrest records for two of those ticketed.

"The cavalier treatment of the story in effect damned police for doing their job. Had they not addressed the condition, no doubt they would have been damned for leaving the men in the children’s section."

"Checkmated on a technicality," Browne told the Daily News.

Police brass conceded cops failed to enter the intended violation code, which bars adults from an area of the park reserved for children and their guardians. The rule will be enforced in the future, Brown told the paper.

- Geoffrey Croft

This story was updated to include a statement from the NYPD which was received after it was originally published.

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2 Ticketed Chess Players Opt For Trial

Yacahudah "YA" Harrison (l) and Chris Perlata (r) rejected a plea deal from a Manhattan Criminal Court judge. They along with five others were issued tickets for playing chess in Emerson Playground in Inwood Hill Park in October. "They want to go to trial," said their lawyer, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel. "They feel the charges against them should be dismissed outright." They will be back in court on January 4th. (Photo: Carla Zononi/DNAinfo)

Manhattan

Two of the men ticketed for playing chess in Inwood Hill Park refused a plea deal from a Manhattan Criminal Court judge Tuesday morning, opting to take their case to trial, according to DNAinfo.

Yacahudah "Y.A." Harrison and Chris Peralta were part of the group ticketed on Oct. 20 for playing chess at tables inside of Emerson Playground, a children's play area off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors.

They arrived at a court hearing Tuesday, accompanied by civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, where they refused a judge's offer of an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, or ACD, which would keep the incident off of their criminal record if they have no other criminal activity in the next six months.

Harrison said he didn't take the offer because he doesn't believe he did anything wrong, and because as a homeless man, he could get any number of minor tickets in the next six months that would nix the deal.

"I have no intention of breaking any rules. But if I have any infractions in the next six months, the burden is on me to prove my innocence, no one else," Harrison said after the hearing, which was closed to reporters.

If Harrison and Peralta are found guilty they could be sentenced up to 90 days in prison, according to the judge who heard the case.

The other five men, including an MTA worker eating his lunch in the park when he was caught up in the police raid, accepted the judge's offer.

Now Harrison and Peralta will return to Manhattan Supreme Court Jan. 4 represented by by Siegel and co-counsel Earl Ward.

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Parents Rally To Support Ticketed Chess Players In Inwood Hill Park

A Walk In The Park - November 21, 2010 - By Geoffrey Croft

Parents Rally To Support Ticketed Chess Players In Inwood Hill Park

Yacahudah "Y.A' Harrison, one of the seven men ticketed for playing chess at Emerson Playground in Inwood Hill Park sits with Jayson Jones, 8, a boy he has taught to play. Mr. Harrison was ticket in the playground located at the corner of W 207th St and Seaman Ave in Manhattan. Under Parks Department rules playgrounds are off-limits to adults without children under 12. The rule - meant to protect children from illegal activity - is arbitrarily enforced. Each year hundreds of thousands of people - if not more - eat lunch, read, study, and use park bathrooms located inside playgrounds without receiving fines or incident. (Photo: Carla Zanoni/DNAinfo)

Jayson's Mother, Jackie Rodriguez-Jones, 36, told A Walk In The Park, "I don't want them to move away from this playground. That's the main reason we were all taking about how upset we were that they got ticketed."

My eight year old son asked, "'So mom what do we do now, where do we play chess?"' That was my main concern. This is a positive element in this playground - I've been here thirty years."

Parks Department Solution. On Sunday, the agency placed two picnic tables a block away from the playground near Inwood Hill Park's main bathroom. "Does that mean that they will have to be all the way by the bathroom - which my kids will not be going to play chess," asked Jackie Rodriguez-Jones. "I prefer these chess table stay next to the playground because the kids say what this for, what's going on, that's gets them interested." (Photos: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

On Sunday, multiple adults were sitting at the tables inside the playground, eating lunch, doing work, drawing without a child while the NYPD watched from a patrol car.

"It can't be just enforced here, it has to be a city wide rule, either enforce it or change the rule," said Zaida Grunes. "Its too expensive to move out all the chess tables out of playgrounds. How many playgrounds do we have in all five boroughs that have chess tables? So it has to be enforced across the board or not at all."

"What I do think is that it is probably a bit class motivated," said Inger Tilsen-Breton a neighborhood resident of seven years, five as a mother. "I'm not sure because I don't know who blew the whistle. I could imagine that it had something to do with some people asking about what are they doing here, why are they not gainfully employed. So you hear phrases like that you can't help but thinking it has something to do with people being fearful of homeless people, less fortunate people. That was my impression."

Reacting to the Police Department's decision to release prior arrest information of two men ticketed, Rodriguez-Jones said, "Honestly when they make a choice then they have to back it up, and to back it up they had to make it seem like these were terrible people. There are not terrible people." – Geoffrey Croft

Manhattan

A group of 20 children, parents and residents rallied Saturday in support of the seven chess players who were ticketed by the NYPD for playing chess in Inwood Hill Park this October, according DNAinfo.

Although the Parks Department initially asked the protesters to leave the playground area where they gathered, workers ultimately installed picnic tables in another area of the park where they said chess play would be allowed.

"They put that table in the wrong place," said a Parks supervisor, referring to the chess tables near the playground where the ticketed men had set up their game.

Earlier this week, the NYPD's top spokesman defended the tickets, saying two of the men had prior arrests and that police were being unfairly persecuted in the community for doing their job.

"We’re here to support the guys," said event organizer Jackie Rodriguez-Jones, 36, who brought one of the players a card and chess pieces as a gift from her and her eight-year-old son Jayson Jones.

"Thank you for teaching my son and I good chess tactics," read the card addressed to the players. "You guys are a positive element in the community."

Juan Torres, one of the men ticketed in Emerson playground, playing with Jayson Jones, 8.

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Joanna Johnston, whose 7-year-old son learned how to play chess from the men at the playground, was moved to write a letter on the matter to the 34th Precinct, the City Council, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Crime is on the rise in the Inwood area according to the news and in addition to what we see and hear about in the neighborhood, is chess really something that should be considered a threat to the neighborhood?" she wrote.

Yacahudah "Y.A." Harrison playing chess with a neighborhood child this summer on the table with a chessboard inlay inside Emerson Playground at Inwood Hill Park. Mr. Harrison was one of seven chess players issued a summons on October 20 by NYPD police officers from the 34th Precinct for playing chess inside the playground. Under Parks Department rules playgrounds are off-limits to adults without children under 12. That rule however is arbitrarily enforced. (DNAinfo/Carla Zanoni)

Manhattan

A group of seven mild-mannered chess players are due in criminal court next month after police officers from the 34th Precinct issued them summonses for playing their favorite board game in Inwood Hill Park, according to DNAinfo.

The men were ticketed on Oct. 20 for being inside of Emerson Playground, a children's play area off limits to adults unaccompanied by minors. But the men were in an area furnished with stone chess and backgammon tables — separated from the play area by a fence.

"There is a problem in this area with drug dealing, but the police have time to write tickets to people playing chess?" asked Yacahudah Harrison, 48, one of the men who received a summons for "Fail[ing] to comply with signs."

The men said the police pulled right up to the corner of 207th Street and Seaman Avenue, and came directly to their table. Now they're due in criminal court on Dec. 28.

Captain Jose Navarro, of the 34th Precinct, told DNAinfo he had reviewed the ticket and stood by his officers' actions.

"Under my direction, uniformed officers routinely enter the parks to enforce closing times and other regulations; all designed to protect the community," he wrote in an e-mail.

"The NYPD allows for officers to issue summonses in lieu of effecting an arrest for appropriate offenses."

But Inwood residents expressed outrage that the NYPD would target the chess players in light of the men's history as caretakers and teachers for the next generation of Inwood chess players.

"This is a positive thing for our kids to see and do, it's a positive mental activity for them," said Regina Christoforatos, 38, whose 6-year-old daughter Zoe has been learning chess in the park.

Yacahudah Harrison got a ticket for playing chess in Emerson Playground at the corner of W 207th St and Seaman Ave in Manhattan. (Photo: Florescu/NY Daily News)

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