Susquehanna County

Last week MDN brought you news that mainstream media has all but ignored, in hopes of burying it: Cabot Oil & Gas has filed a legal motion to appeal the OJ jury decision to award two landowner families in Dimock, PA $4.24 million (see Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct). The jury made the award even though there was hard evidence that Cabot did not cause methane migration into the landowners’ water wells. Which is why we call them the equivalent of the OJ jury. Total disregard for evidence and decide “with your heart” instead. “That evil big oil & gas company has boatloads of money. Look at those little kids on the stand. Let’s just give them some money, even if the evidence says otherwise.” That must have been the thinking. At any rate, on Sunday Cabot, who has until now been silent about the appeal, issued the following statement. They’re either asking for (a) the court to overturn the verdict, or (b) order a new trial because of judicial misconduct on the part of the landowners’ attorney…
Read More “Cabot Talks About Appeal Request re Tragic Dimock Verdict”

Cabot Oil & Gas has appealed the (OJ-like) jury verdict in the “Dimock” case–a case where the jury ignored the evidence and instead found Cabot guilty of methane contamination of two families’ water wells in Dimock, PA–even though the families admit their wells were fouled BEFORE Cabot began to drill (see Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case). Not a single news outlet is covering the appeal. Mainstream media’s favorite tactic is to ignore stories in hopes people won’t notice. Fortunately there are now alternative news outlets, like MDN, where you can learn the truth. The only way we knew about the Cabot appeal was through friend Phelim McAleer, the talented director and star of the documentary FrackNation. Phelim is reporting the appeal on his Facebook page. In the appeal, Cabot says the attorney for the plaintiffs engaged in “repeated misconduct” during the trial. She’d lob false innuendos and statements that were immediately retracted–but the jury heard and obviously believed her. You can’t “unhear” a false statement. In other words, she gamed the system–she didn’t play by the rules. Cabot is asking a judge to overturn the verdict…
Read More “Cabot Files Appeal in Dimock Case – Alleges Judicial Misconduct”

Here’s what just happened. A family in Dimock, PA admits, under oath on the witness stand, that their water had too much methane in it BEFORE Cabot Oil & Gas began to drill nearby. The same family, the Elys, later built a 22-room, $1 million mansion on the same property AFTER they admit there was trouble with the water. And a jury decides to find Cabot at fault–and award that family $2.75 million. The other family got $1.49 million. That’s called brain-dead. A total miscarriage of justice–stupidity on the same level as the OJ Simpson jury. The AP has written a story trumpeting the verdict, and every liberal backwater newspaper across the continent is now carrying it. It makes no difference that Cabot has asked the judge to set aside the verdict–a very real possibility. It makes no difference that Cabot will appeal the verdict if the judge doesn’t set it aside (there was no evidence in the case!)–and will likely win such an appeal. The damage is now done in the court of public opinion. No-nothings will read the headline and say, “Yep, Josh Fox had it right in Gasland. That nasty gas driller polluted those poor people’s wells in Dimock. Jury said so.” Case closed. This is a dark day in our fight against fossil fuel haters and climate change radicals. They will regurgitate this verdict from now until long after we’re all dead…
Read More “Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case”

Now that the trial against Cabot Oil & Gas–a trial in which the two families from Dimock, PA allege Cabot caused the water wells of two families to become contaminated with methane–has gone to the jury for deliberation, the Democrat-controlled Scranton Times-Tribune and local TV station WNEP have all sudden woken up and started to cover the trial again. They simply ignored the trial for nearly two weeks as witness after witness for the plantiffs was exposed on the witness stand as lying or shading the truth. It was so bad, the Times-Tribune and WNEP simply stopped reporting the news. Now that the jury has taken more than six hours to deliberate and have asked the judge about monetary compensation–indicating they may actually find for the plantiffs–the anti-drilling Times-Tribune and WNEP is all atwitter. They’ve decided to begin covering the story again…
Read More “Dimock Trial Update: Jury Deliberates, Asks Judge for $$ Guidance”

The judge in the famous Dimock water contamination case has ruled that the plaintiffs have not proven any kind of damages, so he tossed out the negligence claim against Cabot Oil & Gas. That is, he just tossed out most of the remaining case! The only claim left now for the jury to decide, beginning today, is whether or not Cabot created a “nuisance” with their drilling activities. Translation: Cabot Oil & Gas did not, in any way, contaminate water wells in Dimock with their drilling activities. That is now proven in a court of law. Once again MDN friend Tom Shepstone, who has done a superb job of covering the trial, files this report about the judge tossing the last major charge against Cabot, and about more expert testimony that demolishes the plantiffs’ so-called expert witness Tony Ingraffea…
Read More “Dimock Trial Update: Judge Says Plaintiffs Didn’t Suffer Damage”

Radical environmentalists have a lot in common with Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. They’re Fascists who brook no dissent from their twisted view of reality. Case in point: Phelim McAleer, the filmmaker who made the FrackNation documentary, has attended and covered the happenings at the Dimock trial for the past several weeks. We’ve carried most of Phelim’s reports here on MDN, including the hilarious way the plantiffs’ so-called expert, Dr. Tony Ingraffea, tried to avoid answering Phelim’s questions outside of the courthouse (see Dimock Trial: Ingraffea Day 2 – Hides Behind a Woman’s Coat). Being exposed as the frauds they are doesn’t sit well with radical environmentalists who have so much invested in the fiction of “water contamination” in Dimock. Phelim is one of the few (two, actually) outlets where we’re learning the truth about the Dimock trial. The news coming from the trial is so bad for the antis, mainstream media has a self-imposed news blackout on the trial–hoping the masses don’t notice it. Phelim has filed his reports on the FrackNation Facebook page. And herein lies the the ugly side of radical environmentalism. The anti-fracking movement began flooding Facebook with complaints about Phelim’s posts regarding the trial, and Facebook actually took down several posts, and locked down the FrackNation page on Facebook for 24 hours with a warning to cease and desist from posting new Dimock stories. Amazing! Someone tells THE TRUTH about a trial in Scranton, PA and Facebook censors it! Based on a hate campaign launched by radical environmentalists. The good news is that Facebook pulled its collective head out of its rear-end long enough to figure out this was a Fascist job by antis and they’ve now restored the FrackNation page and resurrected the deleted posts…
Read More “Facebook Censors Dimock Trial Stories; Judge Tosses Part of Case”

Last Thursday and Friday in the trial brought by two Dimock, PA families against Cabot Oil & Gas for supposedly contaminating their water wells with methane, Cabot launched into its defense since the plantiffs had rested their case. One of the first witnesses was Dr. Tarek Saba, a real scientist who actually has practical experience with oil and gas drilling and knows the details of the Dimock wells (unlike the plantiffs’ expert witness, Tony Ingraffea, who was destroyed under cross examination, see Dimock Trial: Ingraffea Day 2 – Hides Behind a Woman’s Coat). Dr. Saba’s testimony further debunked the fluff and BS (Barbara Streisand) coming from Tony Ingraffea. Not only that, but at the end of the day on Friday, Cabot called a local Dimock resident who spoke about lighting her water on fire just like they did in Gasland–decades before there was any natural gas drilling in the area. What a great witness!…
Read More “Dimock Trial: Lighting Tap Water on Fire Decades Before Drilling”

If you want to be a blithering idiot and spout your anti-fossil fuel garbage–do it all you want. But don’t abuse your own children by making them do it too. And if you want to try to shake down a company with deep pockets to line your own pocket–same thing. Go for it. It’s sleazy and slimy–but don’t involve your kids in your unethical schemes. That’s just what the Elys have done. In a bid to try and rescue a trial that in all likelihood is about to be dismissed for lack of evidence, plantiffs Scott and Monica Ely had their lawyer put their own children, ages 10-13, on the witness stand. Who would do that to their own children? Even when the plantiffs’ lawyer, the inept Leslie Lewis, asked leading questions in an attempt to tug at the jury’s heartstrings, the entire effort was a bust. The Elys and Huberts, suing Cabot Oil & Gas for allegedly contaminating their water in Dimock, PA, are about out of options. After resting their case, the judge told the plantiffs he has “grave concerns” about the case and lack of evidence. The judge is seriously considering dismissing the case before it reaches the jury…
Read More “Dimock Trial Update: Parents Use Their Kids to Rescue Case…Fail”