{"id":13285,"date":"2021-11-29T13:41:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T21:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/?page_id=13285"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T21:58:09","slug":"climate-activist-defense","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/climate-activist-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Activist Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climate Activist Defense<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\u201cPatagonia 4\u201d: Mosquito Fleet and Portland Rising Tide Activists<\/h5>

In December 2019, \u201ckayaktivists\u201d with Mosquito Fleet and Portland Rising Tide were arrested for blockading part of the Port of Vancouver, Washington, to stop a shipment of pipe intended to be used in an expansion of Canada\u2019s Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline \u2014 one of the worst climate-polluting pipeline projects on the planet. The climbers locked themselves to the dock where the shipment was slated to be delivered. In July 2021 the climate activists\u2019 cases were dismissed in Clark County Circuit Court in Vancouver, Washington. The activists\u2019 cases, like those of many other criminal defendants across the United States, were significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The dismissal came less than two weeks before their trial, but shortly after CLDC lawyers filed motions challenging the constitutionality of the charges.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Water Protectors<\/h5>

CLDC filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the North Dakota federal court, and is assisting with a second suit, charging numerous law enforcement agencies and their officers with assaulting and violating the civil rights of peaceful Water Protectors at Standing Rock in late 2016 and early 2017. In the older of the two cases CLDC has appealed a motion to dismiss filed by the defendants. We are hopeful that that older case as well as the more recently filed case will move forward.<\/p>\n

Our clients were supporting the peaceful opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), led by the Oceti \u0160akowi\u014b (the Seven Council Fires, or Great Sioux Nation). The DAPL pipeline, also known as the Black Snake, has now been found to be illegal by the federal courts on multiple occasions. In late 2016 and early 2017, hundreds of Water Protectors were subjected to cruel and illegal excessive police violence, including the use of water cannons in sub-zero temperatures, rubber bullets and other munitions, copious amounts of tear gas, mace and other chemical weapons, body slams, and other brute force.<\/p>\n

One of our clients, Sophia Wilansky, had most of her arm torn off by a munition tossed by law enforcement. Another client, Eric Poemoceah, had his pelvis broken by police while peacefully demonstrating and livestreaming as a journalist. Both deserve justice in the form of government accountability.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

Eric Poemoceah<\/h5>

In February 2021, CLDC filed an appeal (in response to defendants\u2019 motion to dismiss) on behalf of Comanche Water Protector and videographer Eric Poemoceah. The district court judge dismissed Mr. Poemoceah\u2019s claim without even allowing him the right to obtain documents and sworn statements from the government. In filing the appeal, CLDC and Mr. Poemoceah are asking the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals to allow him to pursue the justice he is entitled to under the U.S. Constitution. You can read the original complaint HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We first filed suit for Mr. Poemoceah in April 2020 against the Morton County Police Department and other law enforcement officers who had used excessive force and violated his civil rights. Mr. Poemoceah was at Standing Rock in February 2017, peacefully expressing his opposition to the pipeline, when police officers attacked him, breaking his pelvis and then forcing him to walk with that broken pelvis to receive (much-delayed) medical help. Instead of having an ambulance come down the road, or bringing a gurney, the officers mocked Mr. Poemoceah\u2019s requests for medical care as he moaned in pain and politely, repeatedly begged for help. Throughout the interaction, as with other Indigenous Water Protectors in the Standing Rock demonstrations, the police officers belittled, dehumanized, and insulted him.<\/p>\n

At the time his civil rights were violated, Mr. Poemoceah was livestreaming and unarmed, facing a group of about thirty militarized law enforcement officers clad in riot gear, with about fifteen feet between him and the group of officers. Mr. Poemoceah was calmly, firmly, but not in a loud voice, reasoning with the officers, in hopes of negotiating a peaceful process for allowing elders to leave the Water Protector encampment, which had been in place for several months.<\/p>\n

His words to the officers were:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI know you have a job to do and a family to provide for, but why do it with protecting oil? That\u2019s all we\u2019re trying to do, sir, is protect \u2014 protect the water. I know \u2013 I know you\u2019re looking at me and I know you just shook your head yes because you have a heart. You have a soul. And I know \u2014 you look like a very prayerful man. Why don\u2019t\u2026 you be honorable and set down your badge right now in front of 6,100 people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>

Sophia Wilansky<\/h5>

Sophia Wilansky's plight gained international attention when she was gravely injured by a police officer who used excessive force in response to indigenous-led protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Morton County Sheriff\u2019s Department and other local government entities have been fighting to have her civil rights complaint, filed in North Dakota District Court in 2018, thrown out, going so far as to outrageously \u2013 and without any evidence \u2013 posit that it was a canister rigged by protesters, not a flashbang thrown directly at her by a police officer, that destroyed much of her arm. The Sheriff\u2019s Department, which coordinated closely with other law enforcement agencies and private security firms, has also refused to comply with requests to return evidence taken from Ms. Wilansky in the hospital or to provide any documentation of the incident.<\/p>\n

On February 1, 2021 U.S. Magistrate Alice R. Senechal made a ruling in Ms. Wilansky\u2019s favor that will now allow her case to proceed. Specifically, she ordered Morton County to request the documents and evidence from every law enforcement agency or governmental entity whose personnel were present in the area of the Backwater Bridge around the time of her injury and to then provide all of that information to Ms. Wilansky\u2019s legal team. The order includes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Videos;<\/li>\n
  2. Internal documents and communications discussing severe protester injuries and\/or explosive less-lethal munitions;<\/li>\n
  3. Situation reports, witness statements and notes, threat assessments, and investigation reports relating to Wilansky\u2019s injury; and<\/li>\n
  4. Physical evidence collected from the Backwater Bridge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As a member of Ms. Wilansky\u2019s legal team, CLDC believes that the evidence of excessive force resulting in the permanent loss of use of Ms. Wilansky\u2019s arm is already sufficiently damning even without this forthcoming evidence, which in light of the County\u2019s multiple attempts to suppress it, is highly likely to provide further proof of wrongdoing. We look forward to continuing to represent Ms. Wilansky in pursuing justice. You can read the judge\u2019s order HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

    Other Standing Rock Civil Rights Cases<\/h5>

    In addition to these two cases CLDC is involved with, there are four other federal civil rights cases we are aware of, two of which are class actions, challenging both the use of force and the road closures and other restrictions of people\u2019s rights during the Standing Rock protests.<\/p>\n

    Meanwhile, Paul Laney (ex-Cass County Sheriff and past board member of the National Sheriff\u2019s Association) has traveled around the country pushing the \u201cStanding Rock model\u201d of police misconduct and unconstitutional repression of lawful dissent. Laney has presented this approach to local police departments along pipeline routes and other controversial climate-destroying projects likely to garner opposition from local communities.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":7992,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"page-category":[716],"class_list":["post-13285","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","page-category-divi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13285"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18684,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13285\/revisions\/18684"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"page-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cldc.org\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/page-category?post=13285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}