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Posted on 03/27/2026 10:50:46 AM PDT by simpson96
An 84-year-old woman was arrested at the Wyoming Magistrate Court after telling the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to stay off her property.
Hilda Mitros was charged with threats of terrorist acts brought forth by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
“We were all very upset. It was probably one of the longest days we have endured in a long time, and she’s devastated,” Mitros’ daughter Dina Smith said.
Mitros has owned her 112 acres of land since 1973 and has stayed on top of new legislation that may affect her property, including work by the DEP.
“She started looking and found out that they were going to be working there and that they had a permitted area that was on our property,” Smith said.
Richard Altizer, a local environmental advocate, said Mitros lives beside a mine shaft that the DEP was ordered by court to fill in three years ago as part of a mine reclamation project.
“The lady lives beside a shaft that they were ordered by court to fill in three years ago and they wanted to cross her, make a road under her property and take dirt out and put it in the shaft, and she told them, no, don’t come on my land,” Altizer said.
The threat was made toward DEP’s environmental advocates, Dennis Stottlemyer and other workers.
The criminal complaint reports that Mitros said something along the lines of “she would shoot anybody with a shotgun who trespassed on her property.”
Altizer said the 84-year-old was entitled to her right to defend what is hers.
“The land is hers now. I don’t know what anybody else thinks, but if they take a gravel off my driveway, they should ask. You know, they’re just bullying these people because nobody’s ever stood up to them,” Altizer said.
Altizer said this is not the first time the DEP has gone after residents.
“To land grab. I mean, they want her land and most of it’s in the lowest elevations, and her land is the lowest elevation in the area, and that’s the only reason they want it,” Altizer said.
“I know her and I love her dearly. And I know she wouldn’t hurt a flake, you know, she’s just old and ornery because it’s her land. Anybody’s got a grandmother. You don’t sit in her chair, you don’t drink out of her coffee cup. And you leave her stuff alone and that’s all she asked them to do, and they just kept poking her,” Altizer said.
Altizer said they do not blame the West Virginia State Police or the magistrate but rather the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for not protecting the rights of Wyoming County landowners.
Mitros was released on a $100 personal recognizance bond.
Anyone convicted on this felony charge could face one to three years in prison and at least a $5,000 fine.
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I keep hoping that the various state DEP will disappear because EPA has cut their funding or that willing employees will just die off and not be replaced.
Way to go, Hilda! They should never have gone after you in the first place.
Good for her!
“DEP was ordered by court to fill in three years ago as part of a mine reclamation project.”
Okay, that didn’t happen in a vacuum. Who sued DEP and got this court order and how did they have any standing if the old mine shaft is on her property?
Just smells fishy.
That is what the Democrat Party considers a ‘domestic terrorist’
- Wait a minute! There might be a legal precedent. Of course! Land-snatching! Land. La-land. See 'Snatch'. - Haley vs. United States. Haley, seven. United States, nothing. - You see, it can be done. It can be done.
Good for her!
Danged bureaucrats think we serve THEM and their whims.
The EPA could have trucked in fill from where ever,as in where ever shaft soil and slag are moved to...
I AM 86 & FEMALE & ON MY OWN LAND....
GOOD FOR HER.
Environazis. Despise them all!
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