Rock Creek, WV – Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, Kimberly Ellis, James McGuinness, and Jacqueline Quimby were finally arraigned yesterday, 20 hours following their arrests, and freed thereafter on their own recognizance.
The activists returned home and confirmed that they had no prior knowledge of their outstanding warrants. Issued in Kanawha County, these court orders were related to trespassing charges filed this past October. The charges carry a maximum penalty of a $100 fine. The four maintain that they did nothing illegal and remain confused as to the reasons behind their arrests.
The nature of Tuesday’s arrests added to their confusion; Lt. Bowers, acting on the Kanawha County warrants, brought the four directly to Raleigh County’s Southern Regional Jail without arraignments. Combined pressure from Climate Ground Zero’s lawyers and the arrested did not result in release for nearly 20 hours. According to Climate Ground Zero’s legal team, the Kanawha County Magistrates were never informed that the four were in custody until a Climate Ground Zero lawyer went to the courthouse Tuesday morning.
Following her release, Jacqueline Quimby stated, “I thought the whole process was completely frustrating. Having your freedom taken away is a serious thing and to be put through such an ordeal in a county I had no warrant in for a charge I was not guilty of makes me very angry. I willingly attempted to rectify the situation, clear up the confusion, and instead was put through a process of ridiculous incompetance on the part of the West Virginia State Police and the Raleigh County and Kanawha County legal sytems.”
“It was a trumped up charge by Walker Cat,” said James McGuinness, ” who we were told by correctional officers has just been sold to an out of state company. At this point it is not about jobs…”
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It’s like you people think you do no wrong, have you guys ever heard of Tresspassing? That is what you were probably charged with. That is why there are security gates at Walker Machinery and that is why there are guardshacks at these minesites you guys walk on. It is so funny that you walk around and think you do no wrong, you don’t have to pay the consiquences for your actions. If you go on someones property without their permission do you not get in trouble for tresspassing? Yes you do!
It is about jobs, yes it is, because you guys are trying to take away the jobs from our miner’s, the walker machinery men and women and all the other vendors that depend on coal here in West Virginia.
Following her release, Jacqueline Quimby stated, “I thought the whole process was completely frustrating. Having your freedom taken away is a serious thing….” Duh. This isn’t a game. When people are arrested and jailed, they lose all personal freedom. They are strip searched, cavity searched, and constrained from doing what they want to do when they want to do it. There is a record of the arrest kept locally, as well as at the state and federal criminal repositories. If a guilty finding results, the resultant criminal record is permanent. Future employment may be jeopardized. Certain lines of work will be out of the question. Just a little something for the so-called movement’s 18, 19, and 20 year olds to consider. The oldsters can afford to take the risk: they have had their jobs and made their livelihoods.
I do not believe they like that 4 letter word Flat Top, jobs is a bad word for them to be related with.