Anti-fracking activist Alma Hasse was released from the Payette County Jail yesterday after being held there for a week – because she refused to go through the booking process that would have allowed her to be cited and released. Hasse was arrested at a public Planning & Zoning Commission meeting on Thursday evening on charges of criminal trespass and resisting and obstructing an officer, both misdemeanors. Once taken to the jail, “The officer gave her the opportunity to be cited and released if she would provide the information that was needed,” said Payette Sheriff’s Capt. Toby Hauntz. “She refused to do that. The jail deputies that were trying to book her let know that if she went through the booking process, they would just issue her a citation and release her.”

Instead, Hasse remained in the jail for seven days, during which time she went on a hunger strike and refused all meals. She appeared before a judge last Friday morning but refused to provide information on arraignment to the judge as well; that was repeated on Tuesday. At that point, the judge issued a $10,000 bond “because she wouldn’t answer his questions and complete the booking process,” Hauntz said.

“I finally went to her on Wednesday and just told her we’ve got to get this done, the judge had told us we need to get the booking process completed,” the sheriff’s captain said. “She finally started talking to me and within five minutes we got everything taken care of.” Going through the booking process, by state law, requires fingerprinting and a photograph, along with providing identifying information; Payette County requires a full name, date of birth, and medical questionnaire. State law, in Idaho Code Section 20-601, says, “Any person who refuses to submit to the entire booking process will be held in the county jail until the process is completed, or until ordered to be released by a magistrate or district judge.”

Hauntz said Hasse went back before a judge on Thursday who released the bond and agreed to release her on her own recognizance; she has a court date in November and a jury trial set for December. “We knew who she was, she had no prior criminal history,” Hauntz said. “Not even 30 minutes after she went to court and the judge reduced the bond, we had her out of custody.”

The Boise Weekly has a report here on Hasse and her jail hunger strike; the site EnviroNews Idaho has a report here, including video, about a protest at yesterday’s Idaho Department of Lands oil and gas lease auction that included Hasse’s daughter, Shavone, who wore a shirt with “Free Alma Hasse” written on the back.

The Idaho ACLU is looking into the case. “We are first of all very concerned about how she actually got removed from the public meeting,” said Leo Morales, interim executive director. “We’re also very concerned how she was then treated once she was in detention in isolation. It’s very concerning to us that government, at this point, has this great authority to just remove someone from a public setting and then charge them with trespassing.”

Morales said Hasse was exercising her right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination, in her refusal to comply with the booking process. “The government has a way to eventually book someone either as a John or a Jane Doe, but in this case they chose not to do that,” he said. “It’s almost akin to a political prisoner, I would say.”

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