Arcadia Woodlands ‘Tree Sitters’ Accept Plea Deal
The "Arcadia 4" to avoid jail time and heavy fines in deal struck with DA.
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Andrea Bowers and Julia Posin--two of the four “tree sitters” who made headlines in January for their peaceful protest of Los Angeles County’s clearing of 11 acres of pristine oak woodlands in Arcadia--agreed to 10 days of community service in a plea deal struck Thursday with County prosecutors at Alhambra Superiour Courthouse.
John Quigley and Travis Jochimsen, the other two defendents both of whom have prior records, will reportedly receive 20 days of community service under a deal they have reached. In each individual's case, the community service can be done for an organization of their choosing.
Posin and Bowers--joined by the group’s attorney Colleen Flynn--appeared in court Thursday morning to accept the deal. Quigley and Jochimsen will appear in court on July 28 to finalize terms of their deals. Quigley declined comment on the deal pending full resolution of the case.
The group faced charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace and delaying a peace officer for their actions in January.
Under the terms of the deal, the group agrees to plead no contest to the misdemeanor trespassing charge and will be placed on informal probation for 36 months, though the DA's office has indicated it will not object to the charge being dismissed after one year. In addition, the group agreed to a "stay away order' and will not be allowed to return to the now barren Woodlands. They also must pay $156 in mandatory court fees.
Prosecutors had originally offered the group-who have been dubbed the "Arcadia 4" by supporters—a similar deal in March. But that offer tacked on $500 fines for Bowers and Posin and $1,000 fines for Quigley and Jochimsen. The previous deal also called for the defendants to pay a total of $2,700 in restitution for costs associated with their Jan. 12 protests.
The group balked at that deal and after Thursday's developments, their patience has clearly paid off.
Read more of our coverage of the Arcadia Woodlands.
Bowers called the deal "very good news" though there was one thing that bothered her.
"The thing that really stung [Thursday] was hearing the prosecuting DA call the county, 'The victim,'" Bowers wrote in an e-mail to Patch. "How ironic that is. The Arcadia Woodlands and the citizens of this county are the real victims."
Bowers doled out special praise to Flynn for her "amazing job representing our voices." She pointed to a letter Flynn wrote to prosecutors, which cited the positive impact the group's protest has had on other public policy issues such as a similar Department of Public Works (DPW) plan at Devil's Gate Dam that has been put on hold pending the completion of an EIR. The black eye suffered by the DPW over its handling of the Woodlands removal is thought by many to have played a key role in the brakes being put on the Devil's Gate Dam project.
Thursday's plea deal ends a long saga that began on Jan. 12 when the group climbed and stationed themselves in trees in an act of civil disobedience to stop a controversial county plan that removed more than 200 native oak and sycamore trees on 11 acres of land in Arcadia owned by County Flood Control.
See before and after pictures of the woodlands.
The County bulldozed the trees and plant life in the area so that 250,000 cubic yards of sediment from the Santa Anita Dam could be put in their place. The DPW has said that the sediment had to be removed so that the dam could meet seismic requirements and continue to be the primary water supplier for both Arcadia and Sierra Madre.
Alternatives to the plan were submitted to the County by Arcadia resident Camron Stone and other locals, but none proved feasible according to a report issued by the DPW.
Watch the video of the county's oak tree removal filmed by Quigley from the trees.
Despite winning the courtroom battle, Bowers feels the fight is not over.
"All of us as citizens must continue to speak out in order to convince the Department of Public Works to change its cultural paradigm of going into natural areas and scraping and dumping sediment," she said. "We believe that the DPW can do its job of flood control and at the same time enhance its environment."
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Comments (6)
CRAZY. How sad for the trees and the people trying to keep a tiny part of the earth intact. I'm so sorry for them all. :o(
The tree-sitters placed their own bodies in centuries old oaks in a desperate, last ditch effort to save a woodland and its wildlife from obliteration. The improprieties in the EIR process that allowed the DPW to destroy an entire oak and white alder woodland are too numerous to recount here. It was clear that a vast majority of the public & local conservation organizations opposed the unnecessary destruction of the oaks. The City of Arcadia wasn't told sediment from other areas would be dumped on the site. CA Dept. of Fish & Game requirements were not met (including a biological site survey and sufficient "mitigation"). Worst of all, there was sufficient space on the existing Sediment Placement Site for all the sediment from Santa Anita Dam and more acreage was bulldozed and trees toppled than approved for the project. Wildlife was killed and the area is now a blighted wasteland allegedly sprayed with defoliant chemicals. Seeing that wasteland where there was once a living woodland is punishment enough for the 4 brave people who attempted to defend the 200+ year old trees. They dared oppose an autocratic agency that manipulated the CEQA process and refused to consider sustainable alternatives to the destruction.
The penalties imposed were "face-saving" for an embarrassing debacle where Sheriffs were misused to keep the media out and overtime authorized for contractors to topple ancient oaks into the night. Shameful. All charges against the Arcadia 4 should've been dropped.
Wow, Lori, thanks for this background. It really IS shameful.
Lori Paul has already expertly provided a bill of particulars as to why this plea-deal is still wrong, even though it is not as horrible as it was originally. Equal justice would dictate that those who worked for the government (including the L.A. County Dept. of Public Works of the L.A. County Sheriffs' Dept.) for who there was a reasonable suspicion of breaking the law would face investigation and, if warranted, prosecution. As far as I am aware, nothing of the sort ever happened. So people who resisted the actions of the government that appeared to be unlawful, end up being the ones prosecuted. The result in this case could have been worse, but it was not nearly good enough. We should demand that persons purporting to act on behalf of the government be held to the same or an even greater standard of legality and righteousness, than the ordinary citizen (or, in this case, the extraordinary citizens, who went the second mile).
Since the plea deal gives the Arcadia 4 the choice of venues for their Public Service Part 2, as Part 1 was the act of sitting in the trees in hope of saving this last vestige of valley oak woodland, they and all their supporters must do tree restoration work somewhere in the LA Basin. Each and everyone of us must join them. Let the supervisors and the DA know this is not a burden for the Arcadia 4 alone.
Where can I keep up on how I can help? I want to support them!