Pipeline protester found not guilty of assaulting security guard
CHRISTIANSBURG VA September 22 2019 — An assault charge against a Giles County man involved in protesting the Mountain Valley Pipeline was tossed out Monday after a judge watched a video of the man’s encounter with a security guard at a construction site — and ruled there was no attack.
The not guilty verdict for Jammie Hale, 47, of Pembroke, came in a Montgomery County General District Court hearing that showed a personal level to the ongoing controversy surrounding the natural gas pipeline, which is being built from West Virginia through six Virginia counties.
The pipeline’s backers call it a vital piece of the region’s energy infrastructure, while opponents say it will only contribute to increased pollution, and that its construction damages the environment and infringes on property rights.
Monday’s hearing centered on the animosity between Hale, a regular, vocal participant in protests who blames the failure of the water system at his farm on excavation for the 42-inch diameter pipeline, and some of the security guards hired by the pipeline’s builders.
Steven McGary of Global Security testified that on the morning of July 15, he received a call that sign-carrying demonstrators were blocking an access road to a construction site near Flatwoods Road in Montgomery County. When he and other security officers arrived, they found protesters on the sides of the road. Virginia State Police troopers were already on the scene and construction vehicles were being allowed to pass.
McGary said that he recognized Hale, having met him at his Giles County property and seen him at other demonstrations. While Hale frequently called him a “damn mercenary,” or used similar language, there had been no physical altercation between them, McGary said.
But at the Flatwoods event, Hale, who uses a cane, “raised the cane in a rapid motion toward my face,” McGary said. McGary said that after troopers told him they had not seen an assault, he went to a magistrate and obtained a misdemeanor warrant against Hale.
A video made by another security guard captured the two men’s interaction. Played in court Monday, it showed Hale approaching a security officer and saying that he’d heard the man had shoved one of his friends and asking if he wanted to shove Hale.
McGary, who was the other officer’s supervisor, stepped toward the two men. Hale raised his cane and cursed. “Don’t you walk up on me,” Hale said.
McGary told Hale to get the stick out of his face and Hale lowered the cane back to the ground. In a moment the two men walked away from one another.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt argued that in raising his cane, Hale “turned that stick into a weapon.” Defense attorney Sandra Freeman, who practices in Blacksburg and Denver, said Hale had only gestured with the cane.
“The intent was to say back off. He’s allowed to maintain space on the side of a public road,” Freeman said.
Freeman asked that the charge be dismissed for lack of evidence and Judge Gino Williams agreed.
“I didn’t see anything in that video that makes this an assault,” Williams said.
Outside the courthouse, Hale welcomed the verdict and called the charge a “sham” and “another attempt by them to stifle my protest, my freedom.”
roanoke.com
