Crime & Safety

Arcadia Tree-Sitters Plead No Contest, Get Community Service

Members of the "Arcadia 4" plead no contest to trespassing charges stemming from a protest aimed at saving a grove of oak trees in the Arcadia Woodlands.

The final two of four environmental activists who staged a to protest the clearing of an 11-acre grove of heritage trees in the Arcadia Woodlands pleaded no contest Thursday and were sentenced to community service. Two others had pleaded no contest earlier.

John Quigley and Travis Jochimsen pleaded no contest to misdemeanor trespassing charges stemming from a Jan. 12 incident in which they sat in trees to hinder the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works from destroying the centuries-old oaks and sycamores.

The LADPW has since turned the grove into a disposal site for debris dredged from the Santa Anita Reservoir.

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Los Angeles Country Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick sentenced Quigley, 50, and Jochimsen--who formed half of the group known as the "Arcadia 4"--to 20 hours of community service and ordered them to stay away from the Woodlands.

Last month, the two other defendants in the case--Julia Posin, 23, and Andrea Bowers-- and received 10 hours of community service.

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The Arcadia 4's defense attorney Colleen Flynn said Quigley and Jochimsen received harsher sentences because of their previous participation in similar protests.

Court Will Drop the Convictions

The court will drop the convictions for all four defendants in a year.

"It's a huge success," Flynn said, noting prosecutors initially sought jail time and $30,000 in restitution.

Barred from speaking at his sentencing, Quigley instead read a prepared statement on the steps of the Alhambra Municipal Courthouse.

"Nonviolent civil disobedience will always be the lifeblood of a free and open society," he said. "When power and authority, in the form of public officials, becomes too enamored with itself–as though they know better than the public they work for–then it is the right and duty of all free thinking people to rise up and take action."

Would he do it again?

"Absolutely," Quigley said. "Our future and the future of our children is at stake."

Posin, who graduates from UCLA next year, said she feels proud of her actions and even plans to pursue a career related to environmental protection.

Quigley said the sit-in brought widespread attention to issues facing urban wildlands.

The incident even led to the formation of the Urbanwild Network, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving urban wildlands. The organization also helped stop the Los Angeles County Flood Control District from turning La Tuna Canyon into a dumping ground for sediments from the county's reservoirs and dams.

Urbanwild founder Camron Stone said his organization will turn its attention to saving the rest of the Arcadia Woodland trees and preventing Hahamongna in the Arroyo Seco from also becoming an LACFCD sediment storage site.

Read more of our coverage of the Arcadia Woodlands protest.


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