Packed Courtroom As 12 Defendants Face Court For MVP Resistance

Report on court appearance by community members targeted for resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Appalachia. For more background on the struggle against the MVP, check out this interview.

On Tuesday, Feb 25 in Giles County General District Court, 11 out of 12 defendants accepted non-cooperating plea deals for charges related to actions against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These court proceedings related to three direct actions that occurred between October 2023 and March 2024 on Peters Mountain in and around the Jefferson National Forest, including where MVP was drilling through the mountain under the Appalachian Trail. The 11 defendants who accepted deals were all facing absurd felony charges, including felony abduction and felony “unauthorized use of a vehicle.” Throughout the day, all felonies were dropped or nolle prossed.

The plea agreements included probation and community service, but no jail time. Those who pushed to go to trial ultimately received more favorable deals from the Giles County prosecutor Bobby Lilly. One person’s charges were dropped in full on the condition of six months of good behavior.

One of the defendants who pushed for a better plea agreement said, “Today we proved that co-defendant solidarity works. We were able to see how different strategies against a stacked system play out. It is in the courts best interest for us to take a deal out of fear of trial, but today we showed that they are just as afraid of an uncertain outcome and we can use that to our advantage when we work together. The people who went to trial, or pushed it to the brink, got objectively better outcomes than those who took deals ahead of time.”

Some agreements included paying restitution. Madeleine Fitch, an Appalachian mother, writer and activist who locked herself to an MVP drill that was boring under the Appalachian Trail, contested $15,000 restitution in a hearing (this amount far exceeded restitution in other plea deals). The judge set a hearing about the matter over to April.

The day ended with the trial of a protester who stopped Mountain Valley Pipeline construction on Peters Mountain by suspending themselves in a pipe for 48 hours. They were found not guilty of 2 misdemeanors (obstruction and “conspiracy to interfere with the reputation of a business”) and guilty of 2 other misdemeanors (trespassing and “interfering with property rights of another”). They were sentenced to community service and probation.

The absurd felony charges issued by Giles County were part of an escalated wave of repression against people resisting the MVP. In the fall of 2023, Virginia police issued felony warrants for eight defendants from this case, and two others were re-arrested in court during arraignments when felony charges were added to their case- a highly irregular practice. More broadly, around 50 pipeline opponents are being sued by MVP in twelve separate lawsuits across multiple jurisdictions, including many of the defendants who had court Tuesday.

Despite MVP’s attempts to stifle resistance, people continued to fight the toxic project through its completion, and there remains sweeping opposition to the pipeline today.

One defendant said, “All of the solidarity today and outpouring of support truly made a difference and today gave me hope. The state may try to divide us but it will only bring us together…going through this whole case for well over a year has only cemented that no matter what happens I will never stop fighting. People will never stop fighting.”

On Tuesday, from 8:30 am-4:00 pm the Giles County courtroom was full to capacity with people in support of the defendants.

One local Giles County supporter, Carolyn Givens, whose land was taken by MVP through eminent domain said, “I have enormous admiration for every person who has had the courage to step up to the plate and publicly demonstrate for what we all know, and that is that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is dead wrong, on so many counts…Thank you to those who have taken public action to stop MVP’s work, at a price to themselves, but to benefit the earth and its inhabitants. You are brave and you are in the right.”

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is a 303 mile long fracked gas pipeline tearing through West Virginia and Virginia, crossing delicate mountain ecosystems, karst terrain, and over 1000 streams and waterways. A series of direct actions and legal challenges helped delay completion of the pipeline for over 5 years, until congress and the Biden administration fast tracked the pipeline as a concession to Joe Manchin in the summer of 2023. The pipeline was finished in June of 2024, more than 6 years past its original projected completion. It is more than $6 billion over budget (well over double its original budget).