Hundreds of activists marched to the federal courthouse on Monday to support a man who became an environmental folk hero by faking the purchase of US$1.7 million of federal oil-and-gas drilling leases in an act of civil disobedience.
Tim DeChristopher, 29, has pleaded not guilty in US District Court to felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at a government auction.
Opening statements is the case were scheduled for yesterday. The trial is expected to last until Friday.
The possibility of just one juror sympathetic to environmental causes could keep DeChristopher from a conviction, although a hung jury could result in him being retried.
Prosecutors have offered multiple plea deals over the past two years, but he rejected those, opting instead to go to trial.
The trial attracted about 400 people wearing orange sashes as a symbol of solidarity, including actress Daryl Hannah. They gathered in Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Park for an early morning rally, singing Pete Seeger’s famous protest song If I Had Hammer, shouting chants against government control of public lands and waving signs that called for DeChristopher to be “set free.”
DeChristopher does not dispute the facts of the case and has said he expects to be convicted. He faces up to 10 years in prison and US$750,000 in fines if he’s right.
On Dec. 19, 2008, he grabbed bidder’s paddle No. 70 at the final drilling auction of the Bush administration and ran up prices while snapping up 13 leases on parcels totaling 9,105 hectares around Arches and Canyonlands national parks.
The former wilderness guide — a University of Utah economics student at the time — ended up with US$1.7 million in leases he couldn’t pay for and cost angry oil men hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher bids for other parcels.
“We were hosed,” Jason Blake of Park City said, shortly after the consulting geologist was outbid on a 129.5 hectare parcel. “It’s very frustrating.”
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