When Jane Fonda moved to D.C. in October to begin a series of climate protests, she announced that she would be purposely getting arrested every week for the next four months.
But as it turns out, there are some complications with that plan.
Last week, after her fourth arrest, Fonda was forced to spend the night in D.C. Jail. She told the Hollywood Reporter that, because she had gotten arrested again after being issued a court date following her third arrest, “they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to spend the night in jail.'”
It appears the incident has shifted her thinking about getting put in cuffs every week.
Fonda told the Post last week that her night in jail was uncomfortable, dirty, and painful. It was cold inside the facility, and Fonda apparently lent her now-famous red coat to another woman. She eventually took the jacket back and used it as her mattress, the outlet reports.
“I’ve got all the cockroaches [in the jail] on a first name basis,” she told the Post. “As one of my jailers said, ‘There’s gotta be better ways to call attention to your cause—don’t come back.’ I think she’s right. … My 82-year-old bones hurt.”
Besides the tough conditions in the notoriously dilapidated D.C. Jail, Fonda’s continuous arrests present another challenge, too. Fonda is apparently worried that if she keeps getting arrested, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (who has jurisdiction over most cases involving arrests for public protests) will begin levying consequences. The maximum penalty for each of Fonda’s charges of “incommoding” is a $500 fine and/or 90 days in jail.
“I have to be careful not to get to a point where they’re going to keep me for 90 days because I have to begin preparing for Grace & Frankie in January,” she told the Hollywood Reporter. “So I’m not going to get arrested every time. They give you three warnings and so I will step away at the third warning.”
A spokesperson for the D.C. attorney general’s office tells DCist that it has not yet made a decision about whether to actually charge Fonda for any of her arrests. That decision can be made all the way up to her November court date. In general, the D.C. OAG does not choose to press charges against people arrested for protesting, though the calculus may change given Fonda’s repeated arrests. And even if the office does charge Fonda, it could still choose to simply impose a small fine as a penalty.
DCist was unable to reach Fonda for this story. At today’s protest, which drew a large crowd, Fonda was joined by the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (yes, the actual Ben and Jerry). No one was arrested.
Previous weeks have seen Fonda getting arrested alongside Catherine Keener, Patricia Arquette, Ted Danson, Sam Waterston.
It’s another Jane Fonda Fire Drill Friday. The crowd is bigger than last week—when Jane spent the night in jail after her fourth arrest by the Capitol police. If arrested again she risks 30-90 days in jail… pic.twitter.com/HMiUGayHDI
— Hannah Jewell (@hcjewell) November 8, 2019
This story has been updated to note that Fonda was not arrested on Friday.
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Natalie Delgadillo