TRI In The News
Anti-coal Activist Found Not Guilty in Va.
7/20/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: ANTI-COAL ACTIVIST FOUND NOT GUILTY IN VA.
From The Charleston Gazette
Original article available here.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - A civil liberties group says a Charlottesville activist arrested during a protest against surface coal mining has been cleared.
The Rutherford Institute says Chris Walters was found not guilty Tuesday in Albemarle General District Court of trespass charges.
Walters was arrested in May after refusing to leave the entrance of an inn where Dominion Virginia Power was holding its annual shareholders meeting. Rutherford lawyers say he was ordered to leave the shoulder of a public highway.
Walters was protesting the utility's use of coal mined through the practice called mountaintop removal.
The Rutherford Institute's president, John W. Whitehead, said Walter's acquittal was a victory for the First Amendment right to assemble and protest.
