AMHERST, Mass — Convicted domestic terrorist Ray Luc Levasseur was prohibited from attending a University of Massachusetts forum on his landmark 1989 sedition trial, but police officers and their supporters picketed anyway Thursday to protest his ex-wife’s participation in the event.
The former leader of the United Freedom Front served 20 years for his role in a series of 1970s bombings to protest U.S. policies in Central America, together with South Africa’s apartheid regime that enforced racial segregation. Other members of his group were charged in the 1981 killing of a New Jersey state trooper.
More than 100 Massachusetts and New Jersey troopers and their supporters gathered in front of the venue in protest, along with Donna Lamonaco, widow of slain trooper Philip Lamonaco. Some carried American flags and signs. One sign read: “There is No Such Thing As a Former Terrorist.”
Lamonaco said the protest was needed to give students a balanced picture.
“I hope they understand that they (the event organizers) didn’t even give us a chance to represent our side,” she said.
Levasseur, his ex-wife and former group member Patricia Levasseur, and a third suspect were acquitted of sedition in 1989. Members of the jury could not agree on a verdict on racketeering charges. The 10-month trial, described as the longest in the history of the U.S. District Court in Springfield, ended in a mistrial.< More than 200 students and residents attended Thursday’s forum, dubbed “The Great Sedition Trial of 1989: 20 Years After.” Patricia Levasseur, two defense attorneys and a jury member from the 1989 trial took questions from the audience. A parolee, Ray Levasseur was denied permission to make the trip from Maine to speak at the event. Now a paralegal, Patricia Levasseur said that if Americans had not fought for what they believed in throughout the country’s history, “we’d still be singing for the queen today.” She said the United Freedom Front had good intentions but made some “mistakes.” “Sedition? That wasn’t even our strategy,” she said. She also apologized for her ex-husband’s absence from the forum. Ray Levasseur’s speech was originally canceled by the university administration following objections from victims’ families, police organizations and Gov. Deval Patrick, a former U.S. assistant attorney general. Levasseur was invited back to campus by a faculty group desperate to protect freedom of expression at the school. “The focus of this whole event is the sedition trial of 1989 in Springfield, and it’s not about the United Freedom Front or anything else,” UMass professor Sara Lennox said. “There were many faculty that were alarmed that freedom of speech on the UMass campus could be so compromised and so … many large departments, after polling their faculty, decided to sponsor this event — not because any support the ideas, but because freedom of speech is sacred in this country. “It’s not just the ideas that you like,” she said, “it is that the First Amendment and freedom of speech cannot be abridged.”