Enbridge protester guilty in pipeline sit-in
A protester who sat in an Enbridge Inc. pipeline for a day in June 2013 could go to jail after his conviction Tuesday.
"If I was getting put away for 50 years it would be worth it to me," Christopher Wahmhoff, 36, of Kalamazoo said after a Calhoun County judge found him guilty of trespassing and resisting police.
Wahmhoff was charged after the Calhoun County Sheriff Department said he entered a pipeline being built by Enbridge near Division Drive and 16-Mile Road in Fredonia Township on June 24, 2013.
He said he was protesting construction of the new pipeline by the company responsible for a million-gallon spill of oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River near Marshall in 2010.
Wahmhoff spent about 10 hours inside the open pipe, telling deputies he wanted to stop construction for a day.
The company and emergency responders said the protest cost them several thousand dollars.
Circuit Judge James Kingsley tried the case without a jury and ruled that Wahmhoff was guilty of both the misdemeanor of trespassing and a felony of resisting police.
Kingsley said evidence showed Wahmhoff was not permitted on the property and then did not come out despite orders from Detective Steve Hinkley.
"It was a lawful command," Kingsley said in his finding just before noon. "He had been informed he was trespassing and then the defendant ignored him. The defendant knowingly and intentionally refused to comply with the command."
Kingsley said even passive resistance to a lawful police command is resisting.
Assistant Prosecutor Brandon Hultink said it was clear Wahmhoff was trespassing after a Enbridge official, site manager Michael Collier, testified he didn't give Wahmhoff permission to be in the pipe and wanted him to leave.
Then, Hinkley said, he told Wahmhoff he was trespassing and ordered him to leave.
"I told him, 'you are under arrest for trespassing and you need to come out now,' " Hinkley testified. "He said he would not until 5 p.m. and he intended to stop work for a full day."
"He passively resisted," Hultink argued, "but he refused to come out."
Hultink argued that Wahmhoff had the right to picket but not enter the property and stop work.
But defense attorney John Royal of Detroit argued technical questions, saying prosecutors did not prove who owned the eight acres of property and if Collier had the authority to ban Wahmhoff.
He also said Hinkley only asked Wahmhoff to leave, rather than giving him an order, and when he told the protester to leave he didn't ask him to do so immediately.
Wahmhoff will be sentenced Dec. 29. The conviction carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison, but officials said without any prior felony convictions he likely will be placed on probation.
"He is a law-abiding citizen operating on strong moral principles and there is no need for him to be incarcerated, because it would not fulfill any logical purpose," Royal said. "We will be asking for a period of supervision under probation.
"As an attorney for the National Lawyers Guild it is important to continue to take cases like this to trial as part of assisting protesters who are often ignored or don't have an avenue to make their voices heard and to have an avenue as to their reasons of conscience for taking the stands that they took. Citizens like Chris Wahmhoff are having the courage to stand and let their voices be heard."
But Hultink said "several law enforcement agencies, fire departments, and medical personnel worked all day to insure Mr. Wahmhoff's safety as he refused to leave the Enbridge oil pipeline. We believe the guilty verdicts for trespassing and resisting and obstructing an officer were justified under the circumstances."
Hultink said a restitution hearing on the costs likely will be held in January.
"It is disappointing," Wahmhoff said about the verdict. "I look forward to the sentencing. It isn't going to stop the fight against Enbridge. This action did what it was supposed to."
Call Trace Christenson at 966-0685. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson