NEW YORK, Aug. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Protesters arrested at the upcoming Republican National Convention could face harsher penalties than in the past following a recent court ruling that allows prosecutors to introduce previously sealed records of prior arrests for civil disobedience, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

    The state Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo agreed to a prosecutor's request that prior arrest records of four protesters could be unsealed and considered by another judge in sentencing them on new charges, the paper reported.

    With the legal system bracing for a predicted 1,000 arrests a day and groups promising protests outside as well as inside police barricades, defense lawyers are concerned protesters may not understand the new hazard.

    Typically, cases against demonstrators are granted "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," or ACDs, as long as the offender stays out of trouble.

    "Anyone who's had an ACD should think twice" about getting arrested again, said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director ofthe New York Civil Liberties Union.

    ACDs have been used routinely for years to dispose of charges against nonviolent demonstrators. If the defendants do not get arrested again in six months, they skip jail, their cases are dismissed and their arrest records sealed.

    Last spring, Cataldo unsealed the arrest records of four protesters, who in March 2003, formed a human chain across Fifth Avenue to protest Israel's Palestinian policies. Traffic was disrupted for hours.

    A dozen demonstrators arrested at the same protest got community service but prosecutors wanted the other four to get some jail time because they have disrupted traffic in other location in the city in the past.

    Cataldo's decision to unseal their records is now before the Appellate Division but the issue will not be decided until later this year.

    Bruce Bentley of the National Lawyers Guild said defense lawyers will have to explain the potential risk that could come with accepting an ACD, while in the past lawyers usually tell their clients ACDs would not be used against them in the future. Enditem