03/04/2009
from the Kennebec Journal
FAIRPOINT PLAN TARGETS DEBT
Wind project off Mass. meets strong resistance
Three bills seek tougher rules for petitioners
New rules for special education debated
Happy apples
AUGUSTA: Cuts to French curriculum run into opposition
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS BASKETBALL: Hall-Dale drops MVC title game to Mountain Valley
HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Different stakes in Gardiner-Winslow rivalry
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
'At the time ... he was psychotic'
Man answers door, is attacked with Mace and then robbed
FairPoint reorganization plan aims to slash company's debt
Concerns over special-education changes aired
FAIRFIELD: Clinton man, 21, arrested on rape, assault charges
Stun gun, arrest of suspect end high-speed, 2-town chase
HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY NOTEBOOK: Gardiner, Winslow take to ice again
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Skowhegan wins KVAC A title game
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Three women who chained themselves together in a state office building last fall to protest a development in northern Maine were found guilty Tuesday of committing criminal trespass and were ordered to pay the $328 bill for cutting the locks off.
The women, Emily A. Paine, 23, of Portland; Kyla A. Hersey-Wilson, of Thorndike, 27; and Megan E. Gilmartin, 25, of Searsmont, were participating in an Earth First! protest on Sept. 28, 2008, when they were arrested after refusing to leave the Land Use Regulation Commission Office building in Augusta.
A fourth female, a juvenile, was arrested, but her case was handled through the juvenile justice system, District Attorney Evert Fowle said.
The three women entered pleas of no contest to the charges and were automatically found guilty by Justice Joseph Jabar in Kennebec County Superior Court.
Charges of disorderly conduct from the same incident were dismissed.
The protesters entered the commission office building, locked themselves together with large U-shaped locks generally used to secure bicycles, and refused to leave as part of a protest against the agency's favorable review of Plum Creek's development plan for the Moosehead Lake region.
The judge sentenced each woman to 60 hours of community service and ordered them to split the $328 cost of getting a locksmith from Burt's Security Center to cut the locks. Capital Security officers wanted the locks removed before the women were brought to jail.
Fowle said the three objected in court to paying that cost, telling the judge they didn't ask to have it done.
"After they entered the commission, they locked themselves to each other at the neck with locks and they didn't have the foresight to bring the key with them," he said.
Fowle said the public or community service work "has to be for a nonprofit agency that does not advocate civil disobedience as one of their goals."
Betty Adams -- 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com
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