Wednesday, March 16, 2005



New York, New York - Acclaimed actress Rosario Dawson (Kids), who was arrested during a protest outside the Republican National Convention last August, has had her charges thrown out of court. 80 percent of the 1,806 people who were arrested during the convention have had their cases dismissed, adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, or they have won acquittals. Another 10 percent of the cases are still pending, like those of Yusuke (Josh) Banno and Jamal Holiday. Banno is scheduled to begin his trial before a judge and jury on March 22 on charges of assault in the second degree, loitering (under the mask clause), reckless endangerment and riot in connection with the large green papier-mache dragon puppet which burst into flames outside Madison Square Garden. Holiday, a 20-year-old from Harlem is charged with second-degree assault, a violent felony that could bring as many as seven years in jail if he is convicted. Mr. Holiday is accused of assaulting a plainclothes police officer who rammed his unmarked scooter into a crowd of demonstrators. Dawson was arrested along with director Stephen Marshall as they filmed scenes for the new movie This Revolution. Dawson plays the widow of a US soldier who died in Iraq, who joins an anarchist group called the Black Bloc.