A longtime Utah Republican Party dissident, Michael Ridgway, has been sitting in the Salt Lake County Jail since Thursday night, in lockup for apparently violating a stalking injunction and criminal trespass when he tried to attend a Salt Lake County GOP executive board meeting.

"Mike knew that he couldn't attend meetings" in the county and state offices, which he had already been barred from coming into, said Salt Lake County GOP Chairman James Evans.

According to jail documents, Ridgway is being held for violation of a protective order (no bail), stalking and criminal trespass. Arrestees can be held for 72 hours (not counting weekends) before being arraigned before a judge for charges, and as of Monday Ridgway had no court hearing yet set.

Drew Chamberlain, who himself has had run-ins with GOP officials, says he was at the meeting (the county party shares offices with the Utah Republican Party on the corner of South Temple and State Street) when he rose to open a locked door to let in Ridgway, who was tapping on the glass.

Evans then ordered all non-party officials, including Ridgway, to leave. There was a scuffle at the door, but Ridgway left and was sitting outside of the offices on a planter when police arrived on the trespassing call.

Police then arrested Ridgway.

"I consider Mike a political prisoner," Chamberlain said on Monday. Police were using an old protective order, said Chamberlain, one that said Ridgway couldn't attend Republican Party functions. That order was modified soon after it was issued last year, however, and Ridgway was under a court order that only says he can't get within 25 feet of GOP officer Mark Towner or his wife, Carrie, who is a member of the county's executive committee — and who was at Thursday night's meeting.

Court documents show Ridgway is appealing the injunction forbidding him to come near the Towners, although no date has been set for oral arguments before the Utah Supreme Court as yet. Ridgway argues the original injunction should not have been entered in the first place, and also that it is too broad, creating an infringement upon his First Amendment rights to free speech.

Evans said Ridgway knew that he couldn't come into party offices, ever, or it would be a violation of criminal trespass. Political parties are private organizations, not subject to the state's Open Public Meetings Act, and Evans said he can close meetings to visitors as he sees fit.

Chamberlain said Ridgway couldn't make bail because violation of a protective order is an non-bailable offense. "So he's been sitting in jail since Thursday night over this," said Chamberlain.

Ridgway has a long history of battling against various county and state GOP officials and operations. He was stripped of his various party offices two years ago for "disruptive" behavior, said Evans.