What the Phrase Looks Like From the Inside of a Six-Year Case
John F. Sendelbach · Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts · 2026
On the evening of November 22, 2025, a public art installation projected images onto the buildings of downtown Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. One of the slides read: Save Democracy.
That same evening, Katherine Hennessey attended the event wearing a large paper-mΓ’chΓ© frog mask. She wore it, as she later explained in a sworn court document, because she suspected I would be there and did not want me to recognize her. She positioned herself six feet in front of me for fourteen continuous minutes while I spoke publicly at the event. She called the police on me for standing on a public sidewalk. An officer tracked me to private property to deliver a harassment caution for conduct that a sitting judge subsequently confirmed, on the record, was constitutionally protected First Amendment activity.
Eight days later, she and her husband physically assaulted me on a public sidewalk. More than thirty blows. My recording phone seized and thrown into the Deerfield River. A cardiac emergency. Two criminal arraignments. Active criminal proceedings are pending as of this writing.
The "Save Democracy" slide was still on the buildings when she called the police on me for standing on a sidewalk.

