Physically interfering with Mountain Valley Pipeline workers will cost a protester $1,000, a Montgomery County judge ruled Tuesday in Virginia.
Also, Emma Howell, known as “Ash” among pipeline opponents at the tree stands near Yellow Finch Lane, must stay off Mountain Valley Pipeline’s construction sites for a year, the judge said.
“You have the right to protest, these gentlemen have the right to go to work,” General District Court Judge Randal Duncan told Howell. “… Just because you may be smaller in a physical stature doesn’t give you the right to assault them and try to provoke them.”
Howell, who was 22 when she was arrested in February, was convicted of three misdemeanor counts of assault and battery. The charges came from separate incidents in which Howell was accused of scuffling with two workers.
In the first, on May 29, 2019, Howell was among protesters who confronted a crew seeking to cut down the tree stands that block the pipeline’s route through the eastern part of Montgomery County. For more than two years, opponents of the pipeline have occupied platforms positioned some 50 feet above a steep slope so that the trees cannot be cleared. The group Appalachians Against Pipelines calls the Yellow Finch protest the longest continuing blockade of a natural gas pipeline on the East Coast.
There presently are three tree stands at Yellow Finch. In May 2019, there were just two.
William Arroyo, a security contractor with the pipeline, testified Tuesday that he and other workers hoped to find the tree stands unoccupied and to cut them down so that other crews could then clear the pipeline right-of-way. He said that the first platform was occupied but the second was not, and most of his group headed toward it.
Arroyo said he had come to know many of the protesters by name and had introduced himself to them by the nickname “Rico.” He said he knew Howell from encountering her many times at Yellow Finch and also at a protest in Pittsylvania County where he said she chained herself to a drill. It was usual for Howell to berate him for working for the pipeline, he said.
In the May 2019 incident, Arroyo said he hung back to watch as other workers moved toward the second tree stand. Suddenly a rope descended from the first stand. Arroyo said he could see a woman donning climbing gear. He said that he wanted to prevent more protesters from moving into the trees, so he grabbed the rope and hung onto it.
The struggle that followed was captured on a video, with several protesters trying to pull the rope away and shouting that Arroyo was going to hurt someone because the rope was a safety line.
“You’re literally supporting the genocide of the world,” one protester told Arroyo.
Besides the fine and the ban from Mountain Valley sites, Duncan imposed another $500 fine and a 30-day jail sentence, both to be suspended for a year contingent upon Howell maintaining good behavior. At Schrader’s request, the judge added a restriction that for 12 months, Howell could have no contact with Arroyo or Seebacher.
Source: Roanoke Times