Attorney Katherine Henry of Hudsonville, founder of the Restore Freedom Initiative, was ordered to leave the premises of the Leighton Township Hall Tuesday afternoon for trying to collect petition signatures.
Henry was soliciting petition signatures near the township hall during Tuesday’s general election, which prompted local officials to order her to vacate the site.
Stephen Young, chairman of the Allegan County Patriots, who said Henry is the legal counsel and founder of the Restore Freedom Initiative, posted on Facebook, “This appears to be the Allegan County Sheriff’s Department intimidating free speech and right to assemble.”
County Sheriff’s deputies ordered Henry to leave Leighton Township property after she failed to comply with Township Clerk’ Mary Lou Niewenhuis’ request she do so. She posted the confrontation between her and a deputy on You Tube, maintaining she was threatened with arrest.
Henry set up a table at the township hall parking lot to collect signatures for a Restore Freedom petition, to amend the state constitution to “reign back in government power.” She insisted her operation was in compliance with rules to distance at least 100 feet from the township hall.
She said in the video, “They are, he (the deputy) says, going to arrest me if we don’t leave right now because the township owns this property and the township said we have to leave.”
The attorney said Allegan County Sheriff Frank Baker had been in contact with Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf to discuss the incident.
“Oh, (Baker’s) been already on the phone with Sheriff Dar Leaf and they’ve been talking about it today, so he knows about this very situation,” Henry told the deputy.
“OK, Dar is Barry County, this is Allegan County,” replied the off-camera deputy.
Someone on the You Tube video then commented, “Dar’s actually — he’s a constitutional sheriff.”
Henry said she and Leaf are both members of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which asserts county sheriffs are America’s “last hope” to turn the country around and get it back “on the freedom track laid for us by our Founders.”
Leaf lately has been widely criticized for his comments about two of the 14 men arrested in connection with the alleged plot to kidnap and execute Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Henry insisted there is a law that allows for dissemination of campaign literature as long as the person doing so is beyond 100 feet from the entrance of an election polling site.
Henry afterward said in a Facebook post that she was handcuffed and placed in the back of the cruiser.
“I do have criminal charges. I was handcuffed. I am injured from that … thrown into the cruiser instead of allowing me to sit in it,” she said.
WOOD-TV Channel 8 said the Sheriff’s Department said it did not arrest the woman and no one was lodged in the county jail as a result.
Some local officials have suggested Henry deliberately staged the event and alerted local media in order to gain publicity for her cause.
Couldn’t help but notice Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf was involved with his “constitutional” theatrics in Kent County, protesting Gov Whitmer’s COVID policies this summer surround by volunteer militia and now is acting as some kind of advisor to a lawyer from Ottawa County who sought to create a media event in Allegan County.
Why doesn’t Sheriff Leaf have these events in Hastings, the Barry County seat?
Whoever thinks this was staged is “stupid”. She was / is fighting for hers and all of our contitutional rights. Something we obviously all need to be doing, because we are losing them!
This was all within the rights of citizens and voting laws. That the article words our rights as “Henry insisted there is a law” makes it seem like she is making it up. A simple online search of “polling site and disseminating literature” brought me to this site https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/electioneering.aspx that clearly reads Michigan prohibits these types of actions within 100 feet of a polling place. So how did she break any law? And why would a Township Clerk request that she leave and then (presumably) call the cops to harass her?! If I was a Leighton Township resident, I would be questioning how your Clerk is looking out for ALL people’s rights.