Lawyer for NEPA Anti-Driller Vera Scroggins Tries Legal Maneuver
A lawyer for little-known (outside of northeast Pennsylvania) anti-driller Vera Scroggins was in court in Susquehanna County earlier this week trying out the latest legal maneuver. Anti-drilling lawyer Gerald Kinchy--from Sayre, PA--was trying to sucker Judge Kenneth Seamans into "joining" landowners leased with Cabot Oil & Gas to the lawsuit. That is, the lawyer wants the court to treat landowners the same way it's treating Vera--consider them as trespassing on their own land. Sound like convoluted legal fleecing? Well, that's exactly what it is. And the judge wasn't having any of it.
The whole thing got started when Vera started trespassing at Cabot Oil & Gas drilling sites, taking busloads of fellow anti-drillers around to point and gawk and claim Cabot was polluting Mother Earth. Cabot finally had enough and got the court to place a restraining order on her--for her own and others' safety (see NE PA Anti-Driller Slapped with Trespassing Injunction). Since the restraining order disallowed Vera from stepping foot on any property leased by Cabot, it prevented her from visiting her favorite grocery store, among other things. So at Cabot's request, the judge eased the restrictions just a bit (see Judge Lets PA Anti-Driller Sip More Lattes, Attorney Claims “Big Win”). She's still banned from active drill sites, and that apparently irritates Vera. So she got the ACLU to take up her cause and defend her. Now, her lawyer from Sayre is trying to pollute the case before it goes to trial in June (maybe having second thoughts?)...
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