14 Pilgrim protesters charged with trespassing

May 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Patrick Cassidy Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Sunday was not the first time Joyce Johnson has been arrested for standing her ground.

The 79-year-old Falmouth resident was arrested in 1988 at the entrance to Otis Air National Guard Base while protesting the deployment of Green Berets to El Salvador, she said Monday while waiting to be arraigned for allegedly trespassing at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station over the weekend.

Johnson was one of 14 anti-nuclear activists, most from Cape Cod, who crossed onto the Plymouth property owned by Louisiana-based Entergy Nuclear.

"I'm very much against the war, and I'm very much against nuclear power," Johnson said outside the packed courtroom about midway through a five-hour wait for her arraignment.

In Plymouth District Court, members of the group stood out from the crowd for their age and appearance. Some wore tie-dyed shirts. One of the men sported a ponytail and bushy beard. Another man wore a shirt that read "Make Compost Not War."

The 14 defendants were part of a larger protest of about 60 people at the nuclear plant Sunday, said David Agnew, founder of Cape Downwinders, a Cape Cod-based organization opposed to the operations at Pilgrim.

There is no real emergency plan for Cape Cod residents if something goes wrong at the plant, Agnew, 65, said.

A recommendation that residents shelter in place is another way of "saying we should sit down, shut up and eat cesium and radioiodine," Agnew said. "I've had enough."

Agnew and the other protesters were trying to deliver a letter to Entergy officials asking that the plant be shut down in the wake of last year's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan.

"The people of Cape Cod, who would have to travel towards an accident to escape it, have neither a radiological emergency plan nor a single study to show that Pilgrim's radioisotopes are not the cause of their greatly elevated breast cancer rates," Agnew wrote in the letter co-signed by fellow activists Diane Turco of Harwich and Sarah Thacher of East Dennis.

Nobody at Pilgrim, however, would accept the letter, including security guards, Agnew said.

During Monday's arraignment, Plymouth County Assistant District Attorney Andrew Warmington outlined the details of the arrests.

He said the defendants attempted to push through a gate onto an access road to the plant on Sunday at about 1 p.m. Although they were told they could not stay on the property, the group remained until they were arrested, he said.

Warmington said prosecutors were willing to offer the defendants six months of probation in return for a guilty plea and on the condition that they stay away from Pilgrim.

"We can resolve it today," he said.

Judge Rosemary Minehan ordered the charges be continued until July 11 and suggested that the defendants decide during the interim whether they wish to accept a deal or move forward with a jury trial.

Until the case is resolved, the defendants must stay away from the plant, Minehan said.

If they don't, they could be held without bail for up to 30 days, she said, adding that females are held at MCI Framingham state prison.

"This is serious, serious if you go back," she said.

After the arraignment, Agnew questioned why the letter was not included in Warmington's presentation of the facts in the case and disputed other facts laid out by the prosecutor, including that the group pushed through a gate.

"It was ajar," Agnew said.

The activists would like a trial, Agnew said.

"We feel that Entergy is guilty of far greater crimes," he said.

The job of security personnel at Pilgrim is to ensure protection of the plant and not to receive hand-delivered letters, Entergy spokesman Robert Williams said.

"Certainly there are appropriate ways to deliver a message and easier ways," he said. "Once they crossed the property line it was simply a police matter."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was promptly notified by Entergy of the protest activities and the arrests, agency spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

"There were no concerns in terms of the plant's security since they occurred outside of the plant's security perimeter," he said.

The arrests come as Entergy officials undertake heated negotiations with the union that represents many of the plant's employees.

A picket line of about 100 workers at Pilgrim's entrance last week prompted a police presence but no arrests were made.

Talks on a new contract for roughly 240 union members are ongoing after the current contract was extended until May 25.

Entergy and anti-Pilgrim activists are also waiting on a decision by the NRC on an application to extend the 40-year-old plant's license for an additional 20 years.

The current license expires June 8, but Entergy can continue to operate the plant until a final decision on the license is made.