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Feb. 28, 2011 Huffington Post<br><br>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/tim-dechristopher-trial-b_n_829361.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/tim-dechristopher-trial-b_n_829361.html<br>
<br>
</a>SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds of activists marched to the federal
courthouse<br>
Monday to support a man who became an environmental folk hero by
faking<br>
the purchase of $1.7 million of federal oil-and-gas drilling leases in
an<br>
act of civil disobedience.<br><br>
Tim DeChristopher, 29, has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court
to<br>
felony counts of interfering with and making false representations at
a<br>
government auction.<br><br>
DeChristopher's fate will be in the hands of a jury eight men and
four<br>
women once opening statements are made in the case on Tuesday.
The trial<br>
is expected to last until Friday.<br><br>
The possibility of just one juror sympathetic to environmental
causes<br>
could keep DeChristopher from a conviction, although a hung jury
could<br>
result in him being retried.<br><br>
Prosecutors have offered DeChristopher multiple plea deals over the
past<br>
two years, but he rejected those, opting instead to go to trial.<br><br>
The trial attracted about 400 people wearing orange sashes as a symbol
of<br>
solidarity, including actress Daryl Hannah. They gathered in Salt
Lake<br>
City's Pioneer Park for an early morning rally, singing Pete
Seeger's<br>
famous protest song "If I Had Hammer," shouting chants against
government<br>
control of public lands and waving signs that called for DeChristopher
to<br>
be "set free."<br><br>
DeChristopher doesn't dispute the facts of the case and has said he<br>
expects to be convicted. He faces up to 10 years in prison and $750,000
in<br>
fines if he's right.<br><br>
On Dec. 19, 2008, he grabbed bidder's paddle No. 70 at the final
drilling<br>
auction of the Bush administration and ran up prices while snapping up
13<br>
leases on parcels totaling 22,500 acres around Arches and
Canyonlands<br>
national parks.<br><br>
The former wilderness guide a University of Utah economics student
at<br>
the time ended up with $1.7 million in leases he couldn't pay for
and<br>
cost angry oil men hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher bids
for<br>
other parcels.<br><br>
"We were hosed," said Jason Blake of Park City, shortly after
the<br>
consulting geologist was outbid on a 320-acre parcel. "It's
very<br>
frustrating."<br><br>
DeChristopher, who plans to testify, has said the government
violated<br>
environmental laws in holding the auction. A federal judge later
blocked<br>
many of the leases from being issued.<br><br>
DeChristopher had offered to cover the bill with an Internet
fundraising<br>
campaign, but the government refused to accept any of the money after
the<br>
fact.<br><br>
Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that DeChristopher is the only<br>
person ever charged with failing to make good on bids at a lease
auction<br>
of public lands in Utah.<br><br>
"There's people who didn't have the money, but they didn't have the
intent<br>
to disrupt" the auction, assistant U.S. attorney John Huber told
The<br>
Associated Press in 2009.<br><br>
On Monday, the protesters from toddler to seniors marched
through<br>
downtown to a plaza across from the courthouse where they continued
with<br>
speech-making and singing, some led by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul &
Mary.<br>
The group also staged a mock trial with participants standing nearly
9<br>
feet tall on stilts and wearing oversized papier-mache masks
representing<br>
DeChristopher, the government and a NASA climate change expert.<br><br>
"I'm here to support Tim, whose selfless act saved Utah's red
rock<br>
wilderness from exploitation," said Salt Lake City resident Sheri
Poe<br>
Bernard, 55, who said she believes the lease parcels were not
properly<br>
reviewed for environmental impact. "This is a very important issue
... and<br>
I think it's a travesty that our federal government would put Tim on
trial<br>
when George W. Bush is not being prosecuted."<br><br>
Bernard said she wrote to President Barack Obama, asking him to take<br>
notice of DeChristopher's trial and make Utah ground zero for a
national<br>
conversation about climate change.<br><br>
DeChristopher was not at the rally, but he raised his arm and waved to
the<br>
loudly cheering crowd as he entered the courthouse.<br><br>
Hannah, who has been a visible figure in many environmental causes,
called<br>
him a "bright, beautiful example" of the kind of activism
needed across<br>
the country, particularly at a time when people are "at the bottom
of<br>
feeling their disempowerment."<br><br>
Hannah said she believes DeChristopher's actions already have been
proven<br>
justified because a federal judge turned back the leases.<br><br>
"He took a moral stand against injustice. ... He's already been<br>
effective," Hannah said. "This case has the potential to be
quite historic<br>
and pivotal in terms of our rights as citizens to peacefully protest
and<br>
practice civil disobedience."<br><br>
Filming outside the courthouse was Telluride, Colo., filmmaker
George<br>
Gage, who with his wife has spent more than two years working on an<br>
hour-long documentary about DeChristopher. A rough cut of the film
will<br>
debut at Colorado's Mountainfilm Festival at the end of May, Gage
said.<br>
Gage also hopes the project will be accepted by Utah's Sundance Film<br>
Festival for a screening. The festival was founded by actor and
director<br>
Robert Redford, who is also a DeChristopher supporter.<br><br>
"I just think his whole message is so important," George Gage,
70, said.<br>
"We were really impressed by what motivated him. He is so much aware
that<br>
we are wrecking this planet ... Tim is really concerned about what kind
of<br>
world that his children or my grandchildren are going to
inherit."<br><br>
The protest march had at least one detractor. Highland real estate
agent<br>
Robert Valentine mingled with environmentalists and talked about the
need<br>
for Utah to "exploit" its natural resources to create jobs and
fund the<br>
state's schools.<br><br>
"I want to protect the natural resources. My hobby is hiking,"
the<br>
69-year-old Valentine said. "But I think Utah ought to be allowed to
have<br>
more control over the resources more than we do."<br><br>
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