Court action on RNC arrests, which started slowly Tuesday, should hit high gear today to meet a midday deadline for demonstrating probable cause on people detained at Monday’s protests.

The pace picked up just a bit Tuesday afternoon at the St. Paul court that’s dedicated to processing RNC-related arrests after a morning that saw only two defendants arraigned. Ramsey County District Court judges arraigned 10 more people in the afternoon — setting bail amounts for misdemeanors as high as $2,000 or at whatever amounts prosecutors requested, sending self-professed juveniles back to adult facilities, and charging several who refused to reveal their identities with criminal contempt of court.

The afternoon was packed with John and Jane Does, arrestees who at least at first had refused to reveal their identities. Several changed their minds and gave their names — without much ado in the case of one man who had simply been acting on the principle of saying nothing without a lawyer present, and very emotionally in the case of a woman who, on her second appearance, stifled sobs as she spelled out her name.

Judge Paulette Flynn and Chief Judge Katherine Gearin warned that because names and dates of birth are essential information for setting bail, evaluating flight risk or imposing conditions, those who withhold their identities after a direct order from the judge would be declared in contempt of court and sentenced, with the probablity of additional sentences for contempt as long as they refuse to give their names.

Attorneys Jordan Kushner and Howard Carp made detailed arguments to Flynn and Gearin for the accuseds’ absolute right, under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to remain silent and not incriminate themselves by stating their names and birth dates in open court. That right, they argued, has supremacy over the state’s need for such information for bail or other judicial processes.

Names and birthdates are potentially incriminating, Carp and Kushner argued, because authorities could use resulting background checks to justify harsher sentences, and particularly around the RNC, try to link people picked up on minor misdemeanors to criminal conspiracies involving much more serious charges. Those arguments didn’t get traction with the judges, who asked what courts should do with people of whom they know nothing.

Other attorneys complained that bails were being set too high for misdemeanors, and that the speedy trials demanded by those who can’t make bail often prove a punitive sham when the city attorney’s office drops the charges before trial.

The first person sentenced to 30 days for contempt of court was a young woman with a deceptively shy demeanor and stylishly cut hair who was resolute about not revealing her name, although she offered to give her date of birth. Earlier a young man sporting a full beard and moustache gave a birthdate of October 12, 1990, making him a few weeks short of his 18th birthday. But Flynn insisted she needed his name to confirm his claimed age and to transfer him to the juvenile courts. The Coldsnap Legal Collective said that by day’s end, two minors were sentenced to 30 days in detention facilities for adults.

Among arrests that appeared RNC-related in a list provided by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office, charges included: providing false information to police, presence at an unlawful assembly, obstructing the legal process, loitering with intent, conspiracy to riot, criminal damage to property, posession of a police radio, trespassing and theft.