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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