Occupy Little Rock member arrested

LITTLE ROCK, AR - An Occupy Little Rock member sits in the Pulaski County Jail accused of breaking into a restaurant in 2010 and stealing liquor.

William Kelly, 37, faces commercial burglary and breaking and entering charges. Police tell FOX16 that they found Kelly by spotting him in a picture on Facebook showing him at the Occupy Little Rock campsite.

"We received confirmation on a Facebook page. A picture of him at the camp," says Hastings.

While police did not arrest Kelly inside the camp, they say officers walked up to the site looking for him and arrested him in the post office parking lot. Video, shot by an Occupy Little Rock member Tuesday, shows Little Rock police putting Kelly into a cruiser.

"As our officers approached the camp to contact him, he walked out of the camp, actually to meet the officers," says Little Rock Police Lieutenant Terry Hastings.

Kelly is accused of breaking into Cajun's Wharf in November 2010 and stealing $1,000 worth of liquor by stashing it in a backpack.

Occupy members tell FOX16 they had no idea Kelly, who first came to the camp about three months ago, was wanted by police. Kelly is homeless and previously spent time at Occupy New Orleans. Other Occupy members say he was a respected member of the group who did good work with homeless outreach groups.

"We're caught just as much by surprise as any body else," says Occupy Little Rock's Greg Deckelman.

"And, would having a warrant out be part of your zero tolerance policy just like no drugs and no alcohol?" asked Kelly Dudzik.

"Yes, if you had a warrant out for a traffic ticket, it's not a big deal. If you're an axe murderer, or a burglar, yeah, that's a big deal," replied Deckelman.

Tuesday, the LRPD confirmed Kelly's arrest did not jeopardize Occupy's permit.

"We're not in the process of trying to move them out. We've talked with them about some options, and they've made some proposals to us, to the city and that's something that we're considering, but right now we have no plans to make them move," says Lt. Hastings.

"This can happen to any organization. Quite frankly, we don't do background checks and a lot of organizations that people join, don't do background checks, and if we had done one, it wouldn't have turned up a warrant," says Deckelman.

Occupiers tell FOX16 that they have at least three more videos of the arrest, but they don't want to give away what their surveillance capabilities are. So, they decided not to show us those videos.

OLR members will have a meeting about the arrest and whether they should change their security policies, but they feel like they're doing the best they can.

Kelly also has at least one other warrant out of Sherwood.