Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — Jim Barbe thought speech was free, but getting the last word at a township meeting could cost him plenty.
The 60-year-old accountant is accused of talking too long at a meeting of the Salem Township supervisors last fall after officials had limited each person’s testimony to five minutes. Barbe, who was arguing against the creation of a sewer authority, went on for at least 11 minutes, even after officials told him to clam up.
The meeting was recessed, the state police notified and, a day later, Barbe was charged with disrupting a public meeting and defiant trespass.
Together, the charges carry up to two years in jail and a $5,000 fine.
"I did say I was just about done," Barbe said, remembering the meeting.
Barbe wants a judge to throw out the charges and says the rule violated his freedom of speech. But Westmoreland County prosecutors, at a hearing on Tuesday, objected to that, making the point that while speech may be free, too much of it could lead to gridlock.
"We’re just enforcing the law," said prosecutor Kyle Baxter. "I think the First Amendment’s not unfettered and you have to have limits."
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