An outspoken critic of local government has been found guilty of criminal trespassing for attending a Northport City Council meeting while banned from city property.

John Earl, 71, was charged with third-degree criminal trespassing in 2015 after then-Northport city administrator Scott Collins banned him from all city property. Earl, acting on the advice of his attorney at the time, attended a pre-council meeting after the ban and was arrested at City Hall.

"I would have never been there if they hadn't asked me to be," Earl testified on the stand Tuesday, saying he only went to the meeting after speaking with his attorneys who gave him a ride and advised him to attend.

Attorney Jason Neff, representing the city of Northport, said Earl had made city employees uncomfortable and that the ban was based on his actions over the course of a few months.

"This is a public safety issue, that's why we're here," Neff said. "In this day and age, there are instances where public safety is No. 1 and this was one of them."

A date for a sentencing hearing on the misdemeanor conviction will be set.

Former city administrator Scott Collins wrote Earl a letter in December 2015, saying he was not allowed on city property and would be arrested if he violated the order. The letter and three other instances of Earl's encounters with city employees were discussed during the trial.

"These are hardly serious breaches of public safety," Earl's attorney, Bill Dawson of Birmingham, said. "It looks to me like somebody trying to load up on reasons to justify something that was done that was totally improper."

The trial began Monday when Neff called three maintenance workers who testified about an incident with Earl in 2015. They said he came to City Hall while they were preparing the room for an event late that night.



They said Earl asked whether there was a council meeting going on before circling the parking lot in his car and possibly taking photographs of parked vehicles. They said they found Earl's behavior strange and reported it to Northport Police.

Earl testified Tuesday that he was leaving the nearby Publix when he noticed activity at City Hall and was curious about what was going on that late. He did take a photo of Jeep that he sent to someone who had accused a city employee of driving the vehicle home, he said.

Collins testified Monday that Earl had used former city councilwoman Judy Hayes’ code to enter a restricted area of City Hall. Earl testified Tuesday that he did enter that area with Hayes to help her research with public records. Collins told him to leave, he said, but Hayes told him to stay. He left with a police officer who arrived and asked him to leave.

The third incident mentioned during the trial occurred in September 2015 when Earl asked an officer at a City Council meeting about the city's concealed weapons policy and the sign on the door, which he thought was confusing. The officer considered the conversation suspicious, and wrote a memorandum about it in the following days, but never took any action against Earl. Earl said on the stand that he was just asking about the policy.

Reach Stephanie Taylor at stephanie.taylor@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0210.