Biography
Leonard J. Cohen was a staff member of the UFO Coffeehouse, an antiwar gathering place used by soldiers stationed at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. Police padlocked the coffeehouse and arrested Cohen and three colleagues on January 13, 1970. Cohen and manager Duane Ferre remained jailed because they could not make $7,500 bail. On April 27, Cohen, Ferre, and William Balk were convicted of maintaining a public nuisance and received extraordinary six-year sentences. The judge released them pending appeal, and the sentences were later reduced in exchange for lifetime banishment from South Carolina.
Intercontinental Press of May 11, 1970 names the UFO Coffeehouse trial judge as Agnew (surname only) and the prosecutor as John Foard. It identifies defense attorney Reber Boult and reports that the defense intended to appeal after the judge rejected forty-eight new-trial motions. Its April 28 six-year sentencing report corroborates the existing sentence date; six years is the imposed term, not time actually served. The newspaper’s claims about prosecution witnesses and political motivation are attributed reporting, not independent court findings.
