2 Local Men Stand Trial For Theft of Chilean Flag

Two men stand trial today for stealing a Chilean flag from the Harvard Coop building during Olympic soccer games here this summer.

James M. Williamson and Russell Geer, both Cambridge residents, are charged with larceny from a building.

In addition, Geer has been charged with two accounts of assault and battery of a police officer and Williamson is accused of "abuse of a foreign flag," in violation of a hundred-year-old state law which the District Attorney's office has said it would not defend.

Williamson said this week he will plead not guilty to the larceny charge, although his lawyer. Howard Friedman, said yesterday that Williamson was apprehended with a Chilean flag in hand. Cambridge Police Officer Thomas Tosi arrested the men in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 28 after a passerby informed the Harvard Police Department (HUPD) of suspicious behavior by the men and HUPD notifies the Cambridge Police.

Geer was unavailable for comment this week and his attorney refused to discuss the case.

Williamson, who attended the Olympic soccer games, said he felt the flag's presence "legitimized a government where dozens are murdered every week," and that it was ironic he is to be tried on Chilean Independence Day, today, "for an act of solidarity with the people of Chile

Willamson also accused Tosi of unconstitutional violence in the arrest, saying he would otherwise have pleaded "no contest" to the flag-stealing charge.

Toni did not return phone calls during the last few days.

Lt. Larry J. Murphy of HUPD said that while Williamson was being placed under arrest, Geer grabbed the flag, which had been resting on the squad car, and ran up Kennedy St.

HUPD and Cambridge officers pursued him, Murphy said, and Geer knocked one of the Cambridge officers down. A police dog responded, jumping from a squad car window and biting Geer, while police subdued and arrested him.

The trial is set for 9:30 A.M. in the Third District Court on Thorndike St.