{"id":1222369,"date":"2023-09-22T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=618797"},"modified":"2023-09-22T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:30:00","slug":"minnesota-judge-throws-out-charges-against-line-3-pipeline-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/09\/22\/minnesota-judge-throws-out-charges-against-line-3-pipeline-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota judge throws out charges against Line 3 pipeline protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was originally published by the <\/em>Center for Media and Democracy<\/em><\/a> and is republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a ruling last week, a Minnesota judge summarily dismissed<\/a> misdemeanor charges against three Anishinaabe water protectors who had protested at a pipeline construction site in an effort to stop the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline. \u201cTo criminalize their behavior would be the crime,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Leslie Metzen relied on a rarely-used Minnesota statute<\/a> that allows a judge to dismiss a case if doing so furthers \u201cjustice.\u201d She assessed that in this case justice meant throwing out charges against Anishinaabe people committed to preserving their treaty lands. \u201cThe court finds that it is within the furtherance of justice to protect the defendants peacefully protesting to protect the land and water,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a judge dismiss a case in the name of justice,\u201d said Claire Glenn, a staff attorney at the Climate Defense Project who was part of the defense team for the water protectors. She said that research undertaken by the legal team found very few cases where the statute had been cited previously.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three defendants, Tania Aubid, Dawn Goodwin, and Winona LaDuke, were emotional as they processed the ruling during a press conference on Monday. Each member of the trio faced a range of charges \u2014 including trespass, harassment, public nuisance, and unlawful assembly \u2014 for their participation in a protest in January 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudge Metzen proved that treaties are the supreme law of the land, and we have every right to protect for future generations,\u201d said Goodwin, who also goes by Gaagigeyaashiik and is a White Earth tribal member. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LaDuke, however, argued that the system was not strong enough to keep their people\u2019s land and water safe. Since the completion of the pipeline in 2021, regulators have revealed that Enbridge punctured aquifers at least four times during construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe regulatory system and legal systems are not equipped to deal with the violence of the ecological crimes underway,\u201d LaDuke, former director of the nonprofit Honor the Earth, said. As she sees it, the water protectors had no other recourse than to participate in a months-long series of protest actions meant to halt the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Center for Media and Democracy and Grist laid out in a recent investigation<\/a>, Enbridge reimbursed sheriffs\u2019 offices, the Minnesota State Patrol, the Department of Natural Resources, and even a public relations officer for work related to quelling the protests, funneling a total of $8.6 million to various agencies through an escrow account created by the state Public Utilities Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n Read Next<\/span>\n
\n\n \n \n \n
\n \"Police\n <\/figure>\n
\n
\n Documents show how a pipeline company paid Minnesota millions to police protests<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\t\n
\n Alleen Brown<\/a> & John McCracken<\/a> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to police reports, a group of 200 protesters blocked traffic on a rural Minnesota road on January 9, 2021, as they marched toward a place where a backhoe was holding a large pipe near a freshly dug hole. Twenty or 30 people entered the pipeline construction site, stopping work. \u201cA Native American woman I did not know, wearing a jingle dress did a dance on the edge of the trench, and would not move back,\u201d wrote Aitkin County Investigator Steve Cook. Police issued dispersal orders, and the protesters cleared out soon after, the reports conclude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An officer on the ground pointed to Aubid and LaDuke as potential leaders, and another investigator identified Goodwin after reviewing Facebook videos. But the trio only received citations weeks later \u2014 five misdemeanor charges for Aubid and LaDuke, and three for Goodwin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be months before Enbridge reimbursed law enforcement agencies for the hours they spent policing the protest. According to an analysis by the Center for Media and Democracy, at least four local law enforcement agencies received more than $17,000 from Enbridge for assigning nearly 40 officers to the protest site that day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was not necessary to have 40 or 50 police officers at any point,\u201d LaDuke said. \u201cThis was excessive force used upon all of us \u2014 excessive prosecution, and it was incentivized by Enbridge.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

About two weeks after the protest, Enbridge machinery quietly punctured an aquifer at a similar Line 3 construction site. Over the next year, a total of more than 72 million gallons of water spilled from the earth. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forced the company to pay $3.2 million<\/a> in environmental penalties. However, a single misdemeanor<\/a> was the only criminal charge Enbridge faced, and it came with a deal that said it would be dismissed after a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aquifer breach was key to the defense attorneys\u2019 argument for dismissal of the charges. At a settlement conference the day before the decision, Joshua Preston, who represented Goodwin, asked the judge to put the case in perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just experienced the hottest summer globally on record, a documented fact that led the United Nations Secretary General to issue a statement on September 6 stating \u2018climate breakdown has begun,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhy does Enbridge get one charge while my client gets three?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the question history will ask if the state is allowed to move forward in its prosecution,\u201d Preston continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the press conference, Frank Bibeau \u2014 who is Anishinaabe and a longtime attorney for pipeline opponents \u2014 said that such arguments are typically ignored when they come from Indigenous people: \u201cThese are words we say all the time, but they never get heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n Read Next<\/span>\n
\n\n \n \n \n
\n \"Illustration:\n <\/figure>\n
\n
\n The Line 3 pipeline protests are about much more than climate change<\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n \n\t\n
\n Alexandria Herr<\/a> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors filed a total of 967 criminal cases against people attending Line 3 protests. The vast majority were dismissed, some for lack of probable cause, others via negotiated agreements. Not everyone has avoided \u201cguilty\u201d verdicts. In the last three months, two<\/a> were convicted<\/a> of felonies for participating in protests. Glenn said those cases involved prosecutorial misconduct that is still being litigated. Fewer than 20 open cases remain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a number of cases, attorneys attempted to argue that the involvement of the Enbridge escrow account means the arrests violated pipeline opponents\u2019 rights to due process. However, these arguments failed to sway any judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preston\u2019s arguments about his clients\u2019 case\u2019s relation to the climate crisis, on the other hand, found a receptive audience in court. \u201cThese cases and these 3 defendants in particular have awakened in me some deep questions about what would serve the interests of justice here,\u201d Metzen, the judge, wrote in a memo attached to the ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir gathering may have briefly delayed construction, caused extra expense to law enforcement who came to clear their gathering (much of which was reimbursed by Aitkin County through Enbridge), but the pipeline has been completed and is operating in spite of their efforts to stop it through peaceful protest,\u201d she continued. \u201cIn the interest of justice the charges against these three individuals who were exercising their rights to free speech and to freely express their spiritual beliefs should be dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline Minnesota judge throws out charges against Line 3 pipeline protesters<\/a> on Sep 22, 2023.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citing a rarely used statute, the court dismissed Line 3 protest charges in the name of climate justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13813,39880,1156],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1222371,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222369\/revisions\/1222371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}