Man charged with felony for speaking for longer than three minutes at township board meeting

A man in Saginaw County, Michigan is facing a felony charge after being arrested at a township board meeting on March 4, for going over his allotted speaking time. Mark A. Adams, 59, has been charged with a felony resisting and obstructing police and a disturbing the peace misdemeanor.

Adams was pulled from the podium by several officers and arrested after exceeding the public comment time limit of three minutes, addressing several issues he has with his local government. Township supervisor Augie Tausend asked Adams to summarize his comments after four minutes and to sit down several times.

Tausend says it’s not the first time they’ve had issues with Adams, saying they’ve asked him to sit down at meetings before, but this time was different. Adams says the arrest was pre-planned. Tausend denies that, saying two new officers were at the meeting being sworn in and the others were there to watch.

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Though public comment guidelines are clearly laid out and posted on the building where the meeting was held, Adams says his rights were violated. “Freedom of speech doesn’t have a time limitation, there’s no time limitation when you talk about our constitutional freedoms,” he said.