March 30, 1967, Cleveland Plain Dealer

-- by Michael D. Roberts

Yesterday D. A. Levy, the poet, was in a large cell on the sixth floor of the county jail, complaining that the poets should be treated more like political prisoners: "They should have good books for the poets in jails."

No poet in Cleveland’s history has been treated like Levy, who the police say writes obscene poetry. He is to appear in Juvenile Court this morning for arraignment on a charge of reading teen-agers his poetry and giving them books of it, thereby contributing to their delinquency on five counts.

"I write poetry with the intention of keeping people from smashing other people’s heads," he said. "So they put me in a place with people who smash heads."

"DON’T GET ME wrong. Some of these people in here are beautiful. Even the police were nice to me this time."

Levy said when the police came to his apartment Tuesday afternoon they took his BOMB CLEVELAND NOT HANOI sticker, incense and duplicating machine which is his pride.

Also arrested in his East Cleveland apartment were his friends Robert J. Sigmund, 18, also a poet, and John Scott, 24. Scott was later released.

Sigmund, charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, was being held in Municipal Jail. He wrote police a note on toilet paper, proclaiming a hunger strike.

The document concluded:

" Also don’t disrupt with your questions if you see I am meditating."

A prominent East Side hippie commented yesterday:

"LEVY IS JUST a symbol, a prototype of a movement the police do not understand, and they seek to strike against their ignorance by arresting Levy."

George J. Moscarino, assistant county prosecutor who will try Levy on a previous charge of publishing and dispensing obscene literature, said:

"This is a very, very serious charge. Our office has been interested in having a decent community for our children."

In the morning some of Levy’s supporters passed out poems in City Hall and Central Police Station noting that the day’s crime statistics showed the community far from decent, even with Levy in jail.

Some Western Reserve law professors and students plan to picket the Criminal Court Building today protesting the arrest. Conviction would carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

Levy sat in the cell musing over a statement one of the inmates had made.

"How can people respect their elders when the elders do not respect themselves?"