Veteran exonerated in 2004 protest near Coatesville VA

Neither the crime - unauthorized posting of material - nor the punishment - a $25 fine - seem consequential, but for a Chester County veteran, they represented an injustice he felt compelled to battle.

Seven years later, John A. O'Neal, 70, of Embreeville, said he was gratified that an appellate court reversed his November 2004 conviction, an offense that landed him in handcuffs and a holding cell at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Hospital on Oct. 28 of that year.

"People told me the courts can be slow," he said. "I never thought it would take this long, but I felt I was right."

His attorney, Joseph P. Green Jr., said he was pleased that O'Neal had been exonerated, but also believed the case represented a victory for veterans.

"The right of veterans to communicate to other veterans at VA medical centers was also vindicated," he said.

O'Neal's legal travails began when he sought permission to set up a political protest on the grounds of the Coatesville VA, where he worked as a volunteer. The Vietnam veteran said he wanted to display a 5- by 7-foot placard denouncing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry. His request was denied.

Three days earlier, he had protested without incident at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, he said, so he selected an alternative site: across the street from the Coatesville hospital's entrance.

"If you get arrested, I'm not going to bail you out," he said his wife warned him as he walked out the door.

Undaunted, O'Neal said he set up his display in the state right-of-way to express his views that Kerry was not "presidential material" and was undeserving of veterans' support. Less than a half-hour later, officers from the hospital asked O'Neal to move, saying he was on federal property.

He disagreed and was hauled off to a detention cell. He was also banned from the VA campus, where he had served as a visitor for dementia patients for nearly a year.

At a December 2004 hearing in a classroom at Valley Forge National Historical Park, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles B. Smith found O'Neal guilty of "unauthorized posting of material" on federal property.

"I'm not here to determine what's reasonable or unreasonable; I'm just here to say what the law is," Smith said at the time, explaining that spitting on federal property can land one in trouble.

O'Neal and Green disagreed, noting that O'Neal's rights had been trampled at a venue linked to upholding the Constitution. They vowed to keep fighting.

"They didn't make it easy," O'Neal said, explaining that one court proceeding was held in Bethlehem.

On Nov. 8, 2007, Smith's conviction was upheld by U.S. District Judge James Knoll Gardner, which then led to an argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In late June, the Third Circuit reversed the conviction, ruling that the government "failed to demonstrate that O'Neal's protest occurred on VA property."

O'Neal did not celebrate. "The government had 90 days to appeal," he said.

Last week, after the appeal deadline expired, O'Neal moved for closure: He went to the hospital to retrieve his placard.

"It was in their evidence locker," he said.

Now that it's back in his possession, O'Neal said, he would not rule out using it for a future protest.

"It's a keepsake," he said. "With any luck, it will end up being laid to rest with me in my coffin."