No retweet, no surrender.
An Occupy Wall Street protester who has made government access to social media postings the center of his legal battle refused to plead guilty today because the judge declined to rule on the admissibility of his tweets.
Malcolm Harris, 23, will instead prepare for his scheduled Dec. 12 trial.
Harris was arrested in October 2011 on the Brooklyn Bridge and charged with disorderly conduct — a violation punishable by up to 15 days in jail. Harris and other OWS protesters were arrested on the roadway of the bridge.
The Manhattan District Attorney wanted access to Harris’ older tweets — initially published but now inaccessible — in a search for evidence that Harris knew the OWS protestors knew they were not allowed on the bridge roadway.
Harris and Twitter fought to keep the tweets out of the DA’s hands.
After months of legal challenges by Twitter and the defense, the DA’s office won access to long-erased tweets from Harris to present as evidence against him.
Today, Harris had a deal in place to plead guilty and be sentenced to time served, but the agreement disintegrated at the final hour, putting the case back up in the air.
Judge Matthew Sciarrino, Jr. was surprised when Harris made a last-minute motion to suppress the tweets. Harris was looking for a ruling he could fight after his plea.
Rulings in this case have said people like Harris can’t fight the searches; only companies like Twitter are party to the fight for the digital information.
Still, Sciarrino was hoping the whole case would be tied up neatly today, and not keep him at the center of an open-ended appeals battle.
Sciarrino did not give into the defense, and did not allow Harris to take the easy plea but keep up his Twitter fight.
“The tweets are problematic but not insurmountable,” Harris’ defense attorney, Martin Stolar, told The Post.
In another scenario, Sciarrino could deny Stolar’s motion to suppress the evidence, but still come up with a plea deal, and keep the question over the tweets open on appeal.
The DA’s office said it has offered a deal that would have Harris plead guilty and receive 10 days’ community service.
gsloane@nypost.com