PETTUS -- A total of 14 people were detained and cited for trespassing following a protest Tuesday at a Massey Energy Corp. mountaintop mining site on Coal River Mountain.
Five people were cited early Tuesday morning and eight more were taken into custody that afternoon.
In the morning incident, State Police arrested James Gerard McGuinness, of Montegut, La., Rory D. McIlmoil of Locust Grove, Va, Glen Collins and Matthew Noerpel, both of Rock Creek, Michael Roselle of Forestville, Calif., and Chad Stevens of Athens, Ohio. All but Stevens had chained themselves to a piece of heavy equipment.
In the afternoon, several others delivered a letter to a coal company representative at the entrance of the coal company, according to a release from State Police.
"The subjects refused orders to keep off the coal company property after delivering the letter. As a result, seven subjects received misdemeanor citations for trespassing under WV code 61-3-33," the release said.
Arrested in that incident were Lorelei Scarbro of Rock Creek, Larry Gibson of Charleston, Melissa Petty of Knoxville, Tenn., Heather Sprouse of Charleston, Charles Nelson of Glen Daniel, Mary Wildfire of Spencer, Vernon Halton, of Naoma and Allen Johnson of Dunmore.
In each incident, those charged were cited and then released.
About 50 people had gathered at the Coal River Mountain Watch headquarters by noon, according to Lorelei Scarbro, a Coal River Mountain Watch community organizer on the Coal River Project.
Charles Suggs, with environmental groups Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice, said, “We won’t stop until they do. There is a wind farm going on that mountain or some other healthy, safe clean form of economic activity.”
He said the action Tuesday had stalled clear-cutting the coal company is completing in preparation for mountaintop removal.
“It had been talked about for some time,” Scarbro said. The group completed a year of groundwork to get the state Legislature and governor involved to “do the right thing.”
According to Suggs, no contact has been made with the groups by the governor or legislators. Scarbro planned to be involved in the second protest, which State Police had been alerted to in order to pre-empt any violence.
Numerous groups and people nationwide have become involved in the Coal River wind campaign. Supporters claim wind power efforts should replace the present mountaintop mine project.
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