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SALT LAKE CITY — Frustrated by delays in his federal prosecution for disrupting an oil and gas lease auction in 2008, environmental activist Timothy DeChristopher put himself on trial — and was exonerated by a jury of his peers.
The fossil fuel industry, corporations, the U.S. government and the citizens themselves did not get off so lucky in the Friday mock trial event — all recipients of varied sentences delivered during the sentencing phase of the protest across the street from the federal courthouse.
DeChristopher, 28, was indicted in April 2009 on violating a federal act governing onshore oil and gas leasing and making a false statement in connection with "monkey-wrenching" a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in Salt Lake City,
The University of Utah student said he deliberately bid on parcels put the auction block as an act of civil disobedience to protest what he asserts were Bush administration public land management policies that allowed for unprecedented oil and gas development.
"I could no longer resist the moral imperative to interrupt the crime in progress," DeChristopher told a crowd of supporters. "... the government-sponsored rush to squeeze every drop of oil out of the ground is causing a destabilization of our climate and condemning our children to the extreme costs of our irresponsibility."
DeChristopher said he staged the "trial" because of government delays in his prosecution and because of Judge Dee Benson's decision to prohibit him from using arguments about global warming as a defense that he was acting out of "necessity."
"If the government won't give me a trial, we will hold our own."
"Super-sized" mascots — supporters of DeChristopher's — portrayed various roles in the trial — the U.S. Government, a judge and Dr. James Hansen, a noted climate change scientist. The fossil fuel industry and corporations, as well as "citizens," were also put on trial.
The "government" was accused of forgetting its purpose to serve the people and instead becoming a slave to corporations, failing to respond to climate change.
It was "sentenced" to returning to a democracy and becoming subservient to the will of its citizens.
Corporations were charged with asserting rights akin to that of human beings, "buying" Congress and killing any legislative attempt to reduce carbon emissions. They were ordered to return to the status of "institutions."
When it came to hear the evidence against the "people," Remy Fowles stood on the coffin-stage, holding up a mirror to reflect the audience's own faces.
Describing how the "people" have a duty to hold government and corporations accountable, the "testimony" then went onto detail low voter turnout, how less than 1 percent of the population ever runs for office, how very few write an elected representative or engage in protests.
The testimony went on to describe how most people are confused by the reality of climate change because of misinformation, and even the small percentage of people who understand it, fail to act.
The judge told the "people" they had been negligent in failing to hold government accountable.
DeChristopher said he hoped the message of the event got across — that ignorance is only an excuse for the ignorant.
"There has to be a willingness to act. People have to be willing to make real sacrifices for what they believe in."
His next trial date is Feb. 28.
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com
