Free speech champions or trespassers? Animal activists in pig trial turn attention to lawsuit

BEAVER — There are two versions of this story.

One is that the First Amendment rights of activist Curtis Vollmar were violated earlier this year when he was cited for disorderly conduct after handing out fliers and speaking with locals during Beaver County's Pioneer Day festivities.

The other is that Vollmar and four other activists were trespassing on private property and harassing citizens, despite being repeatedly asked to move their advocacy to public grounds, resulting in the disorderly conduct citation.

It's now up to U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish to decide if Vollmar or Beaver County was in the wrong.

Parrish heard five hours of testimony on Wednesday from plaintiffs' attorney Karra Porter, defense attorney Frank Myler and a variety of Beaver County residents, including Beaver County Sheriff Cameron Noel and several deputies in his force.

Parrish said she'll wait for the attorneys to file several briefs and memorandums before issuing a ruling. The documents have filing deadlines ranging from Oct. 25 to Nov. 10.

According to the civil lawsuit filed Aug. 2, Vollmar and two others were "threatened (and) harassed" by the Beaver County Sheriff's Office on July 23 during Pioneer Day celebrations.

Vollmar's group was there as representatives of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) raising awareness of the then-upcoming trial of the organization's co-founder Wayne Hansen Hsiung and Paul Darwin Picklesimer.

Hsiung and Picklesimer were acquitted Saturday in St. George of taking sick piglets from Circle Four Farms in Milford, Beaver County, in March of 2017.

Taking the pigs was part of a larger effort by Direct Action Everywhere to expose issues concerning the treatment of livestock at what they said is the largest pig farm in the world, owned by Smithfield Foods.

With that victory under their belts, it and other activist groups are now turning their attention to the lawsuit, which names Beaver County and three Beaver County sheriff's employees: Noel, Sgt. Warren Woolsey and deputy Lonnie Laws. It asks for unspecified damages and for a prohibition on "additional violations" of the plaintiffs' free speech rights when the organization returns to Beaver.

The story according to DxE

According to the lawsuit and to statements made during Wednesday's hearing, Vollmar and four other activists called event organizers ahead of time and received permission to have a table at the Pioneer Day festivities. Only three of the five activists, one of which is Vollmar, are named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Upon arriving, there was some confusion about where they could set up, the lawsuit states. A nondefendant police officer told them "the sidewalk is city property," so Vollmar and the others placed their table there. It was narrow enough to not impede foot traffic, the suit states.

Eventually, Vollmar went into the nearby park, while two other activists spread out as well.

"If passersby did not respond or indicated a disinclination to talk, plaintiffs did not further pursue communication with them. If a passerby did express interest, plaintiffs offered additional oral communication, a petition, and/or a flyer," the lawsuit states.

At some point, a community member complained to the sheriff that Vollmar and the others were asking people in the park if they'd heard about the Smithfield trial.

According to the lawsuit, Noel arrived at the park, located two of the activists and said words to the effect of, "Don't make us come back. The next guy to show up here is going to beat the (expletive) out of you and I'm not going to be there to protect you."

The suit also alleges that he told two other activists something to the effect of, "You will be killed and I won't be around to stop them! You are on private property and if you don't leave immediately, I will press charges."

Four of the five activists discontinued their outreach, but Vollmar walked by himself to a street corner, the suit states. He filmed his subsequent interactions with Noel, Woolsey and Laws posted it online, where it's received over 9,000 views on YouTube as of Oct. 12.

In it, Woolsey is heard saying, "Do you realize that your company caused a problem in our community? ... Do you realize you're not wanted in this community and you've been asked to leave?"

He also tells Vollmar that his group has been "a direct influence" on shutting down Smithfield foods, the county's "major employer."

"There's a lot of people that have lost their jobs. And you come into this community and pour salt into the wounds of the people that have lost their jobs," Woolsey is heard saying. "I'm going to stand right here and I'm going to tell people not to talk to you."

Later, Laws is heard saying he's given Vollmar a "lawful order" to not film another officer and if Vollmar violates it, he's causing a disorderly conduct issue.

At another point, when Vollmar asks a passerby if they've heard about the Smithfield trial, Woolsey says, "You don't have a permit to approach people about your product, OK?"

The lawsuit states that as Vollmar began walking down the street, both Woolsey and Laws followed, with Woolsey telling people not to talk to Vollmar because he's with the people "trying to shut down Smithfield."

Woolsey eventually told Vollmar he was issuing a disorderly conduct citation and would arrest Vollmar if he continued his outreach. The others weren't being cited, the lawsuit states, because they stopped talking to people when Woolsey told them to.

The story according to Beaver County

But Direct Action Everywhere's version of events lacks some significant context, according to statements made by multiple community members during Wednesday's hearing.

Vollmar was cited not for expressing unpopular views, Myler said, but because of his "aggressive" and "in-your-face" harassment of citizens simply trying to enjoy their holiday and because he trespassed on private park property owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Vollmar and the other activists weren't "innocent people just handing out leaflets," Myler said, and added that it's "nonsense" to call this case a First Amendment violation.

"We did not shut down free speech," he said.

Brent Blackner, a Beaver resident and chairman for the local Pioneer Day festivities, said he doesn't recall telling Vollmar his group could have a table at the event. He said he told them the park was privately owned property and asked them multiple times to leave.

But they didn't leave immediately, Blackner said. Instead, they dispersed through the crowd, and only then did he speak with the mayor and city manager. He did not speak with law enforcement, he added.

Minersville resident Evelyn Jensen did, however.

Jensen said she was at the Pioneer Day event when she noticed Vollmar's group "harassing" people in the park, including families. She approached a nearby police officer and told him a group in the park was annoying people and pushing their agenda.

Beaver residents and sisters Candace Smith and Carolyn Anderson also spoke with nearby police officers after seeing the activists approaching high school students and even teens in their own families.

The Pioneer Day event was "not the time or place," for the activists' outreach, Anderson said, and as a Latter-day Saint, she believes she had the right to tell people to leave church-owned property.

Woolsey testified that he was approached by three citizens complaining about Vollmar's group. His understanding is that they were temporarily leaving the park when asked, but then going back to it.

"I was considering their rights and the rights of the community," he said.

Woolsey said the activists had a right to be on public property, but they weren't following instructions, though he conceded during cross examination that he never specifically asked them to stay out of the park.

He cited Vollmar and not the others, he said, because Vollmar was presenting himself as the leader and the others weren't "presenting a problem."

"I was enforcing the law because there continued to be complaints," Woolsey said.

The sheriff added that he had to do something after three to four hours of receiving community complaints. "We gave (the activists) what they could do and they chose not to do that," Noel testified.

He said Vollmar's group can advocate on public property any time they want to. But on July 23, the issue was that they were "trespassing" and "harass(ing) individuals."

Toward the end of the hearing, the judge told Myler he'd just spent hours trying to convince her that the Beaver County Sheriff's Office has no problem with people engaging in free speech on the sidewalk, but he "vehemently opposes" an injunction that says just that.

Parrish said she was failing to see how an injunction was necessary if both the defendants and the plaintiffs agree that free speech on public property is a right.

In response, Myler emphasized that the citation was never about Vollmar exercising his First Amendment rights on public property. Rather, it was about his trespassing and harassment.

"You're not going to be arrested for free speech. There's no need for the injunction," he said.

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