Moses may have traded in his robes for a suit, but he will nonetheless be forced to roam the Nassau County courts for a while longer — only a few weeks, though, instead of 40 years.
Stephen Figurasmith, 32, of Valley Stream, appeared in Nassau County court Friday after he was arrested in June for dressing as Moses and placing an unknown substance at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola.
He had his offense reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Figurasmith and his attorney Ronald Kuby expected the charges of false bomb threats to be dropped after Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said last week that was her intention.
Kuby said he and his client would return to court in September, where he expects the charges to be completely dropped.
“This was an act of protest, a biblically themed and theatrical protest, but no law was violated, let alone the massive felony charge that was originally leveled at him,” Kuby said at an impromptu press conference outside the court building.
He said that he had agreed with the Nassau district attorney’s office to grant an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal or ACD, which means that the charges would be dropped if Figurasmith stayed out of legal trouble for a certain amount of time.
District Court Judge Rhonda Fischer had other plans.
“Judge Fischer… decided that she wants to conduct her own investigation to determine whether or not that plea agreement is warranted… she asked a number of questions to the bench that she did not want answers to,” Kuby said.
The 125 bottles of the unknown liquid — which Figurasmith said was labeled as water and red food dye — was placed in front of the Legislative Building as part of a prison rights protest.
Figurasmith dressed as Moses and Suzanne Myron of Woodbury dressed as Aaron, with the red water representing one of the 10 plagues that Moses brought on the Egyptians to free the enslaved Israelites.
The duo is part of the group Prison Abolitionists of Nassau Inciting Change, which is demanding reforms to county prisons, including a minimum wage for prisoners on work assignment.
According to a press release, the protest was timed to coincide with the holiday Juneteenth, which celebrates the emancipation of black Americans from slavery. Figurasmith and Myron were arrested on June 14, five days before the official date of Juneteenth.
“I attempted to deliver a peaceful and legal message to elected officials about the human rights of those incarcerated in Nassau County jail,” Figurasmith said. “Apparently, somebody was so scared of the message we attempted to deliver that they arrested and pressed false charges against me and my co-defendant to prevent that message from ever being delivered.”
According to court records, Myron had her felony charges reduced and, like Figurasmith, her case is supposed to be dismissed by ACD.
Figurasmith will be back in court on Sept. 11 and said he had “full confidence” that the charges would be dropped. In the meantime, he invited Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and members of the Nassau Legislature to meet with him.
“I’d like to invite them to meet with us to discuss the demands of our campaign because treating those incarcerated with dignity and respecting the most basic of human rights is the first step toward addressing the many problems plaguing our Nassau County jails,” he said.
Reach reporter Luke Torrance by email at ltorrance@archive.theisland360.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 214, or follow him on Twitter @LukeATorrance.
Thank you for this article which is more well written and researched than most others appearing in local press on my case.
However, one very important detail is absolutely wrong and has been misreported almost everywhere. The bottles never contained an “unknown liquid.” Each one of them was clearly labeled with the words “Ingredients: Water, Red food coloring (100% safe and non-toxic).” Everybody involved, the police, etc. knew what was inside the bottles from the very start. We went through great lengths to ensure that the bottles would not be viewed as posing a threat, including by sending an announcement out ahead of time explaining the protest.
I’d be more than happy to share photo evidence of this with you. This article makes it sound as though I only made the contents of the bottles known after the fact, which is untrue. The term “in identified liquid” is totally inaccurate. Thank you again.
1. The fact is that, at the time of your little show, the bottles did contain an unidentified liquid. To expect that 1st responders are to believe the labels and letter and statements of someone in disguise and who is breaking the law is a wee bit naive and downright stupid imho. The liquid is unknown until confirmed and your word is by no means confirmation.
2. To expect to be paid, even minimum wage, after you break the law, are convicted, and sentenced to jail cannot be justified. And don’t say that they should be paid because they’ve lost any source of income while jailed. If they didn’t break the law they wouldn’t be in jail. And don’t say that they should be paid because they’re supporting their family and we care because the family is innocent – they didn’t care enough to avoid jail because that would happen to their family.
3. If the incarcerated are unhappy about how it is to be in jail – maybe they should not have committed an offense in the first place.