Beginning today, at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom A; in the case of People v. Patrick Thompson, what the State wants you to believe for the third time is this:
…after Patrick Thompson, along with his wife and others, founded a non-for-profit mentoring program for at-risk youth,
…after Thompson, along with other members of Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults (VEYA) notified the Mayor of Champaign and the Champaign Police Chief on March 29, 2004 that he and others would be observing police conducting routine traffic/pedestrian stops from a safe distance,
…after Thompson was befriended by a candidate for Champaign County state’s attorney and helped to work on her campaign to win the November 2004 election,
…after Thompson organized and hosted a public forum at the Douglass Branch Library on May 1, 2004 with members of law enforcement, the Champaign Police Chief, the candidate for state’s attorney, and members of the minority community to discuss ways to improve relations with the police department,
…after Thompson broadcasted a videotape of this public forum on Urbana’s public television station,
...after Thompson enrolled in Parkland College's criminal justice program for the Fall 2004 semester,
…after Thompson and Martel Miller videotaped police interacting with citizens in the North End for almost two months and were often told by hostile police officers to turn their cameras off,
…after Thompson captured on camera in late July of 2004 an assistant state’s attorney videotaping citizens while on a “ride-along” with the same officer Thompson had complained about in 2003,
…after Thompson and Miller had their camera and tape seized by Champaign police officers on August 7, 2004 at the direction of the same assistant state’s attorney who Thompson had videotaped videotaping,
…after Thompson and Miller were informed they were being investigated for eavesdropping on police officer conversations,
…after Thompson’s cousin, Martel Miller was served a notice to appear in court,
…after Thompson had edited and narrated two months of police film footage into a half-hour documentary called Citizen Watch, which exposed police behaving more aggressively in the north end against minorities than the white students on campus,
...and one day after Thompson had submitted this documentary on August 23, 2004 to the public television station in Urbana which was later seized by police that same day,
…and one day after Aug. 23, when his cousin, Martel Miller, was indicted on two counts of felony eavesdropping carrying a possible maximum penalty of 15 years in the state penitentiary for each count,…
…the state wants you to believe that Patrick Thompson awoke early the next day on August 24, 2004, left the apartment he shared with his wife and three of their children, and attempted to rape a perfect stranger.

The state wants you to believe this despite there being no physical evidence to support the allegations. According to prior testimony of Urbana Police Officer Michael Hediger, he performed no investigation other than to write down the accuser’s statement. Failure to secure and search the crime scene, the victim, and the perpetrator for evidence is against the Urbana Police Department's own policy for investigating sex crimes.

These unsubstantiated accusations is what the state would like you to believe starting this May 12, at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom A.

If convicted again, Thompson, age 39 and pursuing a degree in Career and Organizational Studies at Eastern Illinois University; could face up to 30 years back in prison for the home invasion charge, and 15 years for the criminal sexual abuse charge.

Please plan to attend and watch this form of legal retaliation for yourself.
For readers who cannot attend, this thread will contain daily updates on the case throughout this week.