Jack Berry blows under pressure
Throws Observer out of illegal meeting
Meeting Transcript
Columbia County, FL (posted
August 18,
2009)
Lake Shore Hospital Authority August 17, 2009
Speakers:
LSHA Chairman Jack Berry:
CHARIMAN BERRY
Stewart Lilker:
THE OBSERVER
LCPD Officer Cline:
OFFICER CLINE
CHARIMAN BERRY:
Hold on just a minute. Mister Lilker, you can either put
your camera down, or leave – one or the other.
THE OBSERVER:
~~unintelligible~~ I’m holding the camera.
CHARIMAN BERRY:
You can either put your camera down or leave Mr. Lilker.
I only intend to tell you again.
THE OBSERVER:
(Silence)
CHARIMAN BERRY:
If I need to call the police department to have em
escort you out of here that’s exactly what I’ll do.
THE OBSERVER:
(Silence)
CHARIMAN BERRY:
Are you refusing to leave?
THE OBSERVER:
I’m standing here listening to the meeting.
CHARIMAN BERRY:
I’ll recess this meeting.
(Berry reaches into his pocket and takes out a cell
phone)
CHARIMAN BERRY:
Yes maam, could you send an officer down to two fifty
nine Franklin Street at the Lake Shore Hospital
Authority Complex. I need to have you escort somebody
out of the meeting.
~~unintelligible~~ ain’t standing here. Stewart Lilker.
White male. Shorts and a red shirt.
THE OBSERVER:
Short?
CHARIMAN BERRY:
Thank you.
(Berry leaves the room dialing his cell phone again)
(Approximately eight minutes later)
CHARIMAN BERRY:
There he is -- right there.
OFFICER CLINE:
They need you to leave.
THE OBSERVER:
I don’t know why.
OFFICER CLINE:
You got to go.
THE OBSERVER:
Do you know why?
OFFICER CLINE:
They’re not holding a hearing.
THE OBSERVER:
Come on – They still have a meeting if they don’t want
me here.
OFFICER CLINE:
They’ve asked you to follow the rules. Apparently you’re
not following ...
THE OBSERVER:
Could you tell me what rule I’ve violated – please.
OTHER OFFICER:
Sir – you’re disrupting a public meeting.
THE OBSERVER:
I disrupted – I was standing there not talking.
OFFICER CLINE:
Come on – let’s go.
THE OBSERVER:
I’m getting my stuff in here.
(Lilker gathered his
stuff together and left with the police officers)
(In the street)
THE OBSERVER:
~~unintelligible~~
OFFICERS:
~~unintelligible~~
THE OBSERVER:
He had no right to throw me out. ~~unintelligible~~ He
can’t throw whoever he wants to out of the meeting, can
he?
OFFICER CLINE:
I can’t argue with what happened before I got here, but
he said you had broke several the meetings and the
rules.
THE OBSERVER:
I broke several what?
OFFICER CLINE:
Rules.
THE OBSERVER:
He didn’t say what they were?
OFFICER CLINE:
He said that you broke several rules and he was asking
you to leave.
THE OBSERVER:
Well he lied.
