Wednesday, September 30th marked the first jury trial for the non-violent direct action movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Glen Collins was found guilty of trespassing (asked to leave) and conspiracy by a jury of six. On May 23rd of this year, Glen Collins and seven others locked themselves to a rock truck on Kayford Mountain to speak out against the crime of mountaintop removal. This action led to the eight of them being charged with the two crimes. During their pre-trial in July, six out of eight of the activist plead no contest and accepted a large fine. Glen Collins and Mat Lewis-Rosenburg plead not guilty. Glen stated before going into court yesterday “I believe that actions like this are necessary and just and if Boone County wants to take away my freedom for trying to protect its citizens from the atrocity that is mountaintop removal, then so be it.”
This morning at 9 am Glen Collins met at the Madison Courthouse in Boone County, West Virginia, to take his stand against mountaintop removal and risk the fate of spending up to eighteen months in jail. The prosecutor opened by saying “this is a simple case” where the defendant should be found guilty of both charges. The prosecutor made the case that Glen was asked to leave the mine site and that he did conspire to trespass with the other activists. The Defense attorney however made the case that trespassing could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt and conspiring to protest is not illegal. Although the Prosecutor’s argument lacked solid witnesses and evidence, Glen was found guilty by the jury on both accounts. Magistrate Burnside did not sentence Glen to jail time, but did give him maximum fines of 1,500 dollars plus court cost.
The morning started with the prosecutor calling Deputy Thompson and resigned Deputy Jarrell to the stand to testify. The two witnesses testified that they worked for the Boone County Sheriffs Department and that they were called in, and arrived at the Kayford Mountain mine site shortly after the Kanawha County officers. The mine site is on the border of Kanawha and Boone county lines and Kanawha officers had told Thompson and Jarrell that it was within Boone County’s jurisdiction. Kanawha County officers decided which county had jurisdiction because they were first on site and had told Officer Thompson that they had taken a GPS reading where the activist were locked down. This was rebutted by the Defense attorney because the two testifying officers made it clear that they did not actually take the GPS reading, look at property maps or perform any sort of survey themselves.
After a short cross examination the defense attorney pulled out a contract stating that Catenary mines does not actually own any property in Boone County. The contract brought forth by the defense attorney left the prosecutor and judge surprised and they took a break to research this evidence and then moved on without much concern for this evidence.
The defense attorney also stated that Glen was not guilty of trespassing because the court had brought forth no evidence that the property owner or agent had warned Glen he was trespassing or asked him to leave. Defense argued that although the deputies had testified that a mine worker had asked Glen to leave; this was hearsay and not factual evidence. However, the judge overruled the hearsay argument, because he called the deputies credible witnesses. “This is a prime example of a victimless crime” stated the defense attorney. In order for a crime to have been committed, the property owner or agent must have warned the defendant of trespassing and then ask him to leave. The victim should have been concerned enough to come to court to testify. The argument was also made that Glen could not have been trespassing because there were several entrances to this site, and there were no “no trespassing” signs posted anywhere except at the main entrance. The defense also stated that the conspiracy charges were absurd when there was no outstanding proof that the defendant was trespassing.
In the closing statements the defense stressed you can not guess and the evidence must be there, and it is not. The prosecutor closed with saying “it is what it is and the defendant should be found guilty.” Although in the face of an overwhelming lack of evidence, the citizens of Boone County found Glen Collins guilty of conspiracy and trespassing (ask to leave). Shortly after his trial Glen stated “he is surprised he is not in jail this evening, and looks forward to the appeal.” His bravery to stand up to this trial and go on with the appeals process show his dedication to end the destruction known as mountaintop removal. For more information of other court cases involving acts of civil disobedience against mountaintop removal, please read the Associated Press article by Vicki Smith Massey going after mountaintop removal protesters
