The RNC Eight, accused of a criminal conspiracy to wreak chaos during the Republican National Convention, are unlikely to go on trial for at least another six months. But the battle to shape public opinion on the high-profile case has been taking place since the moment of their arrests on the eve of the St. Paul convention in early September.

At a hearing Tuesday afternoon before Ramsey County District Court Judge Teresa Warner, attorneys for the prosecution and defense traded charges over which side had stepped over the line in attempting to manipulate media coverage. Previously Judge Salvador Rosas, who is no longer hearing the case, had warned both sides to be cautious in their public relations machinations.

The prosecution is now seeking an order barring the defense from leaking nonpublic evidence to the media. As evidence of the need for such a prohibition, Assistant County Attorney Heidi Westby cited a Star Tribune article from Dec. 1 based on the review of 1,000 pages of documents provided by a source. The reports detailed the infiltration of the RNC Welcoming Committee by undercover deputies from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office.

Westby stated that attorneys for the eight defendants were the only ones with access to the documents. She further argued that the evidence includes private individual information, such as juvenile arrest records and financial data.

“They had not been disclosed to anyone else,” she said of the evidence. “This case should not be tried in the press.”

But attorneys for the two defendants in court today — Max Specktor and Monica Bicking — countered that Ramsey County officials are the ones guilty of trying to game the legal process through media manipulation. They noted that Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher and County Attorney Susan Gaertner have held press conferences and released evidence unavailable to defense attorneys.

Attorney Larry Leventhal, who represents Specktor, accused the prosecution of seeking to control media coverage by muzzling the defense. “I think she’s being exceedingly disingenuous,” Leventhal said of Westby. “They are attempting to monopolize the conversation.”

Attorney Bruce Nestor, who represents Bicking, said that the prosecution has consistently utilized evidence unavailable to the defense — including ballistics tests and lab reports — to tar their clients in the media. “For months my clients have been attacked in the press,” he said. “There was a purpose to that, and it’s to prejudice my clients to the public.”

Judge Warner did not rule on the matter. Similar preliminary hearings will be held for the remaining defendants — Erik Oseland, Eryn Trimmer, Garrett Fitzgerald, Luce Guillen-Givens, Nathanael Secor and Rob Czernik — over the next week. The cases are currently expected to go to trial in September. Only about 15 percent of the more than 700 people arrested during the RNC have been charged with crimes.

At the close of Tuesday’s hearing, Warner counseled both sides not to engage in behavior that will taint the case. “I won’t tolerate any games being played, any shenanigans,” she said. “We’ll try this case in the courtroom on the evidence that’s presented.”

(Photo courtesy of Friends of the RNC 8)

The new charges are conspiracy to riot in the second degree (without the terrorism enhancement); conspiracy to damage property in furtherance of terrorism; and conspiracy to damage property (without terrorism enhancement). The eight were arrested before the Sept. 1 start of the RNC.

Something else seems to have been discussed in Rosas’ chambers, but the parties weren’t talking about it afterward. Attorneys for the defendants and Janet Hafner, a spokeswoman for Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner, said the judge asked them not to disclose details to the press. That request — which was not a formal gag order — was apparently breached almost immediately when defense attorneys discovered that Gaertner’s office had issued a statement, prompting the RNC8 attorneys to rush back to the judge’s chambers en masse. The result was that Gaertner’s office pulled back its release, which reads in part:

Contrary to the assertions of some individuals supporting them, the defendants are not being singled out for prosecution for political reasons, or to silence the free speech we all cherish. Plain and simple, they face these charges because they broke laws that apply to them, and to all others, equally. …The evidence shows that these defendants, rather than being victims of oppression, planned to deprive others both inside and outside the convention hall of their free speech rights through acts of violence.

The RNC8 Support Committee released its own statement, mostly prepared before Wednesday’s court date, asserting that the newly added felony counts amounted to “prosecutorial games meant to cloud public perception and to ensnare the 8 in a web of overlapping charges. … [T]he Prosecutor’s office is attempting to obtain a court order to keep the RNC 8 from sharing information about their case.” Gaertner’s retracted press release, the statement said, engaged in “defaming our character in an attempt to taint the jury pool.”

More than 50 people were in the courtroom, including the eight defendants (who stuffed themselves onto a single bench in the gallery), at least two of their fathers, 14 lawyers, three deputies, several reporters and one baby. Victor the bomb-sniffing dog searched the courtroom as people arrived, prompting one defense attorney to voice a tongue-in-cheek protest: “I find that offensive — as if we wouldn’t tell our clients to leave their bombs at home.”

The hearing came on the heels of a series of activity in support of RNC protesters facing charges, including Vernon Rodriguez of California, who was charged with a felony and whose trial was postponed by four weeks on Monday, according to a courtroom clerk. An announced effort to flood Gaertner’s office with phone calls demanding she drop charges didn’t amount to a noticeable uptick in call volume, according to the main desk receptionist at Gaertner’s office. But some in the courtroom today were still discussing a protest against St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman at a downtown restaurant; that protest succeeded in generating at least several minutes of excitement. (Gaertner has announced her candidacy for governor, and Coleman is considering a run for that office.)

Whatever went on behind closed doors, the mood was light enough that one of the eight young defendants performed a handstand and a backflip while waiting for the attorneys to return from the judge’s chambers.