Appellate court upholds disorderly conduct convictions of Wawayanda Six

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Police cut the chains off actor James Cromwell during a civil disobedience protect outside the CPV power plant in 2015

WAWAYANDA – Disorderly conduct convictions against six people who chained themselves to a gate in front of a construction entrance to the CPV power plant on December 18, 2015 have been affirmed by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, Second Department.

The defendants, dubbed the Wawayanda Six including famed actor James Cromwell of Warwick, Protect Orange County founder Pramilla Malick, Naomi Miller, Madeline Shaw, Maureen Murphy Smolka and Teresa Sigler Klemm, were arrested by State Police.

They were found guilty following a non-jury trial before Wawayanda Town Justice Timothy McElduff, Jr. Each was fined $250 plus a $125 surcharge. Cromwell, Malick and Shaw refused to pay the fine and each was sentenced to seven days in the Orange County Jail.

Cromwell argued that they blocked the entrance to slow down construction to prevent any further global warming and because of what they said would be localized effects of the plant on public health and safety.

District Attorney David Hoovler said his office was “confident in the outcome from the day of the original conviction.”

Malick responded to the appellate court decision: “We learned our lesson when we took the Minisink case to the D.C. Circuit Court, the second highest court in the country with the best possible facts on our side. We learned our lesson when we went to the 2nd circuit court with video evidence of protected eagles left unprotected.  The courts are not beyond the reach of a company this powerful. The issue before the court was imminence. In December 2015 we blockaded the power plant and just two years later by January 2018 people began to get sick. That impact was imminent then and we were right. Just yesterday the climate news headlines sounded another alarm with permafrost melting 70 years earlier than predicted. As I write this the time frame for what should be considered imminent is accelerating. At this point we may be past imminence, it may be simply too late. Perhaps we should require both our judges and politicians to study more science before taking their jobs.”




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