Seven Vermont clergy members, including a 69-year-old Corinth resident, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor of unlawful trespass in Chittenden Superior Court following an ICE protest in Williston last month.
“The protesters ignored the directions and warnings they were being provided,” a state trooper wrote in the affidavit.
Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, in addition to his service at Church of the Good Shepherd in Barre, also participates in civil disobedience where he sees fit, he told the Valley News.
“We’ve got people who are productive members of our communities who are being tossed out, harassed and made afraid,” Kooperkamp said Thursday by phone.
Back in September, he and seven others blocked entry into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Williston, Vt., due to being “deeply disturbed by what ICE is doing,” he said Wednesday by phone.
On the morning of Sept. 4, Kooperkamp, along with six other Vermont clergy members, blocked entry to the White Cap Business Park off Industrial Avenue in Williston.
Kooperkamp noted that ICE previously focused attention on people who had committed violent crimes, but now also acts against immigrants across the board, he said, including people who contribute to the community by owning a small business or attending college.
“The mission changed,” said Kooperkamp, who added that he has a pastoral relationship with people who are undocumented or documented but still afraid of retribution.
After learning that the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center is headquartered in Williston, one of two such centers in the nation, Kooperkamp and other clergy members decided to block the doors leading into the facility, but he said they avoided other offices.
“We did not impede other public access at all,” said Kooperkamp.
They simply wanted to stop the center from carrying on its activities.
“And so we did stop them, maybe not for a long time,” said Kooperkamp, who added that they also wanted to spotlight local ICE presence.
When an individual attempted to get in, the group told him that ICE was “shut down today,” Kooperkamp recalled.
On Sept. 4, Williston Police received a trespassing complaint from Normand Stanislas, a property manager responsible for the White Cap Business Park, according to an affidavit filed by Trooper Brandon Degre.
Degre noted that public entryways included notices stating the property is private and that trespassing and loitering are not permitted.
Vermont State Police responded to the scene around 7:45 a.m. after being notified of an ongoing protest. They located trespassers inside and in varying locations around the building.
One trooper read a dispersal order to a pair of protesters, but they were not specifically named.
“If you do not immediately leave this area just described, regardless of your purpose, you will be arrested or subject to other police action,” Trooper Blaz Mihaljevic said, according to the affidavit.
He also noted that in response to resistance, police action could involve use of force that may result in pain or injury, or involve chemical agents.
When they ignored the initial warning, Mihaljevic read an arrest order, the affidavit stated.
At about 9:30 a.m., he went through the same process for five other protesters who were in “the atrium blocking two other doorways,” Degre wrote.
Police arrested the seven trespassers, and they were cited to appear in Chittenden County Superior Court on Oct. 20.
“The Williston Police and the Vermont State Police were incredibly professional and courteous,” said Kooperkamp.
Kooperkamp’s court records note a prior conviction for unlawful trespass in 2012, and he said he’s been arrested approximately two dozen times, dating back to 1980 as a seminarian protesting “Citibank’s underwriting of the apartheid regime in South Africa,” he said.
Kooperkamp’s conditions of release specify that he may not contact Stanislas by any means, return to the property or discuss the case with the codefendants.
The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor unlawful trespass charge is three months of imprisonment and a $500 fine, as indicated in court records.
Kooperkamp said he understands the state’s interest in accountability for the alleged trespassing, but comparing it to the harm done by ICE should put it in perspective.
“If the state’s attorney wants to keep charging, fine,” said Kooperkamp.
Along with Kooperkamp, state police identified those arrested as Catherine Bock, 78, of Burlington; Jessica Derise, 54, of Williston; Rebecca Girrell, 47, of South Burlington; Elizabeth Gleich, 36, of Middlebury; Karen Johnston, 58, of Colchester; and Susan McMillan, 65, of Colchester.
Kooperkamp shared that his next appearance in Chittenden Superior Court is on Jan. 13.
