Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

7 Gas Pipeline Protesters Plan To Fight Trespassing Charges

Keith Srakocic
/
AP
Segments of an assembled pipe are lined up along a cleared section of woods where a pipeline for shale gas is under construction on Saturday, July 8, 2017 in Jackson Township, Butler County, Pa.

Seven people arrested at a midstate protest of a $3 billion pipeline being built to carry natural gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to Southern states intend to fight their charges at trial.

LNP newspaper reports the protesters entered not guilty pleas to charges of defiant criminal trespass on Monday.

The people were arrested in October after trying to keep construction crews off a cornfield owned by a Roman Catholic order of nuns in Lancaster County. The Adorers of the Blood of Christ have sued in federal court to stop the project. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. That ruling is under appeal.

Thirteen other people arrested at the protest pleaded no contest. Two pleaded guilty. Another is being processed through the juvenile court system.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.