Urban Unrest

23 March 2007 | Pacifica | Ernesto Aguilar

Activist files suit against KPFT-FM

By DALE LEZON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
March 22, 2007

A Houston peace activist and board member of public radio station KPFT-FM (90.1) filed suit this week after the general manager of the station barred him from its Montrose studio.

Ken Freeland alleges that Duane Bradley unfairly prohibited him from coming to the station after Jane Tucker Bradley, no relation, accused Freeland of assaulting her.

Freeland, a member of Houston Coalition for Justice Not War, denied the accusation.

Duane Bradley said he banned Freeland from the station to protect Jane Bradley and other staff members.

Jane Bradley said she feared Freeland after a confrontation with him during a forum for candidates seeking election to the station board in October. She said Freeland “jumped into my face” and yelled at her about the forum’s organization.

He didn’t hit her, she said, but she filed a complaint against him with the Houston Police Department.

“His baseball cap was bumping into my forehead,” she said. “I felt he was a threat to me.”

Freeland said he didn’t touch Bradley, and said he yelled at her only after she had yelled at him.

Duane Bradley said he filed a trespass affidavit against Freeland with police after the confrontation.

Freeland could be arrested if he goes onto station property.

Freeland contends that the prohibition curtails his ability to fulfill his duties as a board member and disenfranchises the people who voted for him.

State District Judge Tony Lindsay is scheduled to consider a temporary injunction against the ban on March 30.

Jane Bradley and Lester Radke, who hired her to organize the KPFT board election, also are named in the lawsuit. Radke worked as the national election supervisor for the Pacifica Foundation, the station’s parent organization.

The lawsuit also claims that the three defamed Freeland by telling others about the alleged assault.

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