Hill no longer facing charges

PALMER — A week after a jury found him not guilty on assault charges, prosecutors dismissed the last remaining criminal case against Sidney Hill.

Hill is locally relatively noteworthy for standing on the corner of Glenn Highway and Palmer-Wasilla Highway most days of the year holding a sign calling for the impeachment of President Obama.

His assault case stemmed from a run-in with a teacher and a group of special education students on that corner. Hill says the teacher assaulted him. The teacher claimed Hill was belligerent and abusive. The jury sided with Hill on Nov. 14.

A trespassing case — which was dismissed this past week, Hill said — stemmed from the Alaska State Fair, which Hill is no longer allowed to attend after an incident in which he was forcibly removed for holding his sign there without permission from the fair. That incident wound up making a splash on YouTube.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Hill seemed to lump the officers who charged him with those various low-level crimes with other folks he meets on the street corner who don’t like what he’s up to.

“A lot of people don’t like controversy, just want to keep their head in the sand and don’t make waves,” he said. “I could understand that in the beginning of the Obama presidency, but as things go by that proves me right — it kind of gets to be actually stupid that they would still act like that.”

For their part, Palmer police have said that there’s not anything they can do about Hill. He’s exercising his free speech right. As long as he’s standing there peacefully and not blocking the sidewalk, they say he’s free to do so.

The trespassing and assault cases were instances, police have said, where what Hill’s done has potentially crossed the line.

In addition to holding his sign on the corner, Hill ran against U.S. Rep. Don Young as a write-in candidate in November and plans a similar run against U.S. Sen. Mark Begich in 2014.

Asked for a look at his criminal cases from his point of view, Hill went straight to his message.

“What’s being seen through my eyes is we’re in the midst of a fallen republic that needs to get back to Glass-Steagall, it needs to get back to scientific and technological progress,” he said, referencing the repealed Glass-Steagall bank regulation act that many believe could have allowed America to avoid the recession it is in.

Indeed, Hill’s main beef with Obama seems to be that he bailed out the banks.

Hill said that when he talks to people about these things, they seem to a lot of times agree with him. In fact, he said, that just happened again the other day with a guy he was talking to about being found innocent in court. The guy seemed to agree with Hill about where the country was going.

“I asked him when is he going to come out on the corner with me,” Hill said. “He stated that he’s not personally under attack so he doesn’t care.”

Hill said he thinks that’s the problem with the world today.

“That’s kind of the problem with our republic; people don’t act like members of the republic, they act like well-dressed peasants,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.