Posted on 05/17/2006 10:26:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
LYONS — Adam Durand was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail for trespassing on Wegmans’ Wolcott egg farm while he and other animal rights activists filmed conditions there in 2004.
Durand was immediately taken to the Wayne County Jail, but his attorney, who called the sentence excessive, said he may appeal.
Judge Dennis Kehoe, who called Durand the mastermind of a blatant and carefully orchestrated crime, fined him $1,500 yesterday and also sentenced him to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.
“You entered your victim’s hen house without permission,” Kehoe told Durand. “You did this because you believed you were above the law.”
Durand, president of the Rochester-based group Compassionate Consumers, entered the egg farm three times. He and the other activists took 11 hens that they believed were sick or dying and later released a movie titled “Wegmans Cruelty.”
But Wegmans representatives have said they’re proud of their farm, and District Attorney Richard Healy found no evidence of animal cruelty there.
A jury acquitted Durand of felony burglary and petty larceny charges but convicted him on three counts of trespassing, a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of 90 days per count.
“I believe you have a political agenda that results in your suffering from the erroneous delusion that your conviction is a ‘Red Badge of Courage’ instead of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ that it actually is,” Kehoe said. “You have made arrogant and self-righteous statements of justification. You have demonstrated by word and action your obvious disdain for your victim and the laws of the state of New York.”
Durand’s attorney, Leonard Egert, said he’d never seen a first offender get the maximum sentence on a misdemeanor, as Durand did on two of the trespassing counts. Wayne County Probation had recommended only community service for Durand, but Wegmans asked for jail time, Egert said.
“Essentially, the judge gave [Durand] the exact sentence that Wegmans requested,” Egert said.
Testifying during his trial, Durand said the activists removed the hens because they wanted to help them. He described hens covered in flies, trapped in manure pits and hens with their necks stuck in cages.
But by entering the farm, the activists risked infecting the hens with diseases, Kehoe said yesterday, noting they could have caused “death [of hens] on a mammoth scale” and enormous economic damage to both Wegmans and the community.
If the activists had truly cared about the hens, Kehoe said, they would have contacted the authorities. Instead, they chose to attack Wegmans through their film, he said.
“I would like to be able to order you to recover and destroy all of your illegally obtained and perhaps inaccurate videos, but, unlike you, I will follow the law,” Kehoe said.
Egert said he believes Kehoe was trying to make a point with his sentence.
“It seemed like he took into account a lot of other things surrounding this case [such as the film distribution] rather than the actual circumstances of it,” Egert said.
Kehoe said any sentence he imposed that did not include jail time might be perceived as tacit approval of Durand’s actions.
And that perception would be a mistake, he said.
Durand could be out of jail in four months with good behavior, Egert said. He asked Kehoe to give Durand time to make arrangements for his pets before beginning his sentence, but the judge declined, he said.
Kehoe is an elected REPUBLICAN judge, as if you couldn't tell.
Here's one prisoner who should be served eggs for breakfast, eggs for lunch, and eggs for dinner. EVERY DAY!
First time for everything. I bet you told your client thought he was going to get a fine at most. I bet he's real surprised.
Kehoe is an elected REPUBLICAN judge ...
and a self-righteous ARROGANT JACKASS!!!
you call this idiot a judge?
Excellent outcome for an eco-terrorist crime. It is wonderful to read when one of these nut cases is locked up. Way to go Judge Kehoe. We need many more judges like him.
I hope the guards tell the other inmates that this little twig boy flipped a booger on Suge Knight.
guess he had tresspassed to video taped into home where dogs were treated like the chicken are... he would celebrated a hero here...
HYPOCRACY!
'Oog goog ka choo'
So much for the egg man.
On what are you basing that? This case, in which he seems to have applied the law correctly, or something else?
wait till Bubba gets to pluck him
Doogle
Hardly; if the guy showed no remorse, it was his job to lock him up as long as he thinks best (and the law allows).
Ward Churchill will be speaking on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene Thursday, May 18.
Ward will be raising money for the "radical environmentalists and eco-anarchists" who are in jail for arson, etc...
The event will be "a fundraiser for the accused eco-prisoners ..."
Did you forget the "/sarcasm" tag or the "/Imawhacko" tag?
Nice parting shot. I like the way this judge works.
"make arrangements for his pets" -- escapee chickens? What a dope. Great judge.
yep. we more judges like this.
thought you'd appreciate this judge.
Um,
So is it okay to trespass and destroy other people's property?
Give me your address and let me come over and trespass on yours, and destroy or steal your stuff okay?
Sounds like you've been reading (swallowing) PETA propaganda.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.