Court finds gas opponent violated order, no penalty issued

BY STACI WILSON

A natural gas drilling opponent was back in court Wednesday after drilling company, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, said she violated a preliminary injunction to stay clear of their work sites and access roads earlier this month.

Cabot attorneys alleged that Vera Scroggins, of Brackney, led a tour group to the Costello well site’s access road, situated just off SR 3023 in Dimock Twp. on Oct. 9.

Susquehanna County President Judge Kenneth Seamans ruled that although Scroggins technically violated the court order, she would not be punished. He also made clear that that the Costello driveway was also a Cabot access road that begins at its confluence with the SR 3023.

On the stand, Scroggins admitted to guiding a small bus tour to that area, including New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, and former Binghamton, N.Y., mayor, Matt Ryan.

She said the bus drove by a Cabot site in Bridgewater Twp. then headed to Ray Kemble’s home in Dimock, located across from the Costello well site; and from there they walked to the Bill Ely property, adjacent to the Costello land.

Scroggins also said that she has attempted to comply with a court order issued in March that bars her from going onto property owned by Cabot or its subsidiary GasSearch Drilling Services Corporation, as well as prohibits her from entering onto Cabot’s access roads, well pads, and sets a 100-foot buffer from any well pad.

On the stand, Scroggins said signs posted where the Costello driveway meets the public road were different than she was used to seeing posted at other Cabot access roads.

Cabot attorney Amy Barrette asked Scroggins if she saw the sign posted that read, in part: “Access Road Entrance.”

Scroggins said members of the group expressed an interest in reading the signs but that she, personally, did not read the signage that day.

“I have an automatic view,” Scroggins said, referring to what she told the court she believed the access road postings looked like.

Additional signage, according to court testimony, is posted about 50 feet from the initial “access road entrance” sign.

Scroggins said, “I wouldn’t knowingly violate an injunction. I would not go within 100 feet of the road.”

With that, and with additional testimony offered by Ely and Ryan; as well as Cabot employees and security contractors familiar with the site, arguments on the civil contempt motion filed by Cabot were ended.

In another matter, Cabot argued that the company believed it had reached a binding settlement in the case in September, following negotiations between attorneys for both Scroggins and the gas driller.

Scroggins did not sign the document formulated in the settlement discussions.

Cabot argued that the oral agreement was binding in Pennsylvania and that signatures on the agreement were not necessary.

Scroggins’ attorney Gerald Kinchy said his client had not consented to the settlement agreement.

Scroggins’ attorney Scott Michelman, of Public Citizens Litigation Group, Washington, D.C., also argued that a protective order be issued by the court to keep Cabot from disseminating any personal photographs and journal entries it obtained from their client during the discovery process.

He said, “Cabot could use the fruits of discovery to make her look bad.”

He asked the court to consider issuing a protective order that would prohibit the company from using any of the information except in the litigation.

Judge Seamans did not issued rulings in regards to either the settlement agreement or the protective order request immediately after the hearing.