Move comes after State’s Attorney Sarah George gives them a pass.

By Michael Donoghue, Vermont News First

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark has decided that her office will prosecute a dozen adult protestors on criminal charges of unlawful trespass this week after they refused to leave a private office building that houses a medical office, work space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a popular café in late July.

State police, assisted by Williston Police, identified those refusing a lawful order to leave as:

They are due for arraignment Thursday at the Judge Edward J. Costello Courthouse in Burlington.

State police identified Kate Pressgrove, 18 of Hanover, N.H. as a 13th anti-ICE activist that was expected to face the adult charge, but later said the case would be handled in Juvenile Court.  Her arrest and the others from Hanover, N.H. were covered by the student newspaper at Dartmouth College, where Pressgrove was identified as a student.

Clark’s office stepped in after Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George refused to honor the latest round of 13 court citations issued July 24 by Vermont State Police at the White Cap Business Park on Industrial Avenue.

A Vermont State Police spokesman told Vermont News First on Wednesday that the department had referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office. 

The decision by Clark, who lives in Williston, to enforce the trespassing law was not well received by the Anti-ICE movement. 

They have turned to social media to urge people to call the Attorney General’s Office and ask Clark to drop the criminal charges against the self-named “Williston 13.”  They also have asked people to show up at court to support the defendants.

Meanwhile residents upset by the presence of illegal immigrants in Vermont also have been urged to call Clark’s office in Montpelier to urge her to pursue lawbreakers.

An office spokeswoman said she could not say how many phone calls have been received.  She provided Vermont News First a prepared statement from Clark, who is being challenged for re-election in November,.

“I enthusiastically support our constitutional right to protest, and I will always support Vermonters exercising their civil rights. Protest is a foundational part of our democracy. I myself have exercised this right many times, including at an ICE location in Williston. But, there is a difference between legal and illegal actions while protesting,” it said.

Clark protested at the Harvest Lane location during the first administration of President Donald Trump. 

“As an attorney and as Attorney General, I have a responsibility to uphold the law,” her statement said.

“Whether I support or oppose the cause of a protest cannot be the determining factor of whether the law applies to a defendant. That kind of viewpoint discrimination has no place in our justice system,” it said in part.

Clark has signed on to about 70 lawsuits filed against Trump in his second term by a coalition of state Attorney Generals, mostly Democrats.

George, who also is being challenged in her re-election bid in November, has given a free pass to 23 out of 25 demonstrators arrested on misconduct charges during protests in Williston and South Burlington since February.

At least three – Wormser, Kennedy and Wade — arrested in July were arrested at earlier Anti-ICE protests and were given a pass by George, records show.  During an earlier protest at the Williston building, two second-time offenders also were not prosecuted by George.

The 13 trespassers were part of a larger group of people who entered the Industrial Avenue building to protest federal agencies about 7:30 a.m. on July 24, police said.  Some left when warned by police.

The building owner reported to police the individuals were trespassing.  Some left the building, while others refused to leave when asked, and requested that police remove them from the property. Police had them cleared out by shortly after 10 a.m.

Most of the 13 protestors, including six from out-of-state, forced up to four police officers to carry each one out of the office building to awaiting transport vehicles.

State police, working in conjunction with the Williston Police Department, responded and spoke with protest leaders. That discussion led to several people leaving the inside of the building, while 13 others indicated they needed to be arrested. Police complied with their requests.

The 13 individuals were taken into custody.

They were transported to the state police barracks in Williston, where they were processed and released with citations ordering them to appear for arraignment in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 24, police said.