BISMARCK, ND (Legal Newsline) - A senior official from oil and gas producer Energy Transfer said the reversal of U.S. Army Corp of Engineer's crucial easement during Dakota Pipeline construction was "political interference."
"There was no reason for the Department of Justice and Department of Interior to be included in the Army Corps of Engineer's decision," said former Energy Transfer senior vice president Joey Mahmoud, who testified Tuesday in an ongoing trial against environmental activist Greenpeace.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer seeks $300 million in damages for trespass, nuisance and defamation from Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, its U.S. affiliate Greenpeace USA and the group's financier, Greenpeace Fund Inc. The suit is based on Greenpeace's 2016 and 2017 protests over the Dakota Pipeline’s planned Missouri River crossing, upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation.
Energy Transfer claims delays caused by protesters resulted in the project missing an online production deadline of Jan. 1, 2017. The company was contractually obligated to be online by that date or clients could take business to competitors.
Mahmoud, who had worked for the company until the pipeline went online in June 2017, said he "was shocked when I heard the Army Corp of Engineers had announced they would not issue an easment permit” for pipeline construction at the Lake Oahe site that ignited the Standing Rock protests of the Dakota Pipeline.
He said he had never seen before or since “other government agencies interfere with the decision of another government agency over matters with which they had no jurisdiction."
Mahmoud described Army Corps of Engineers official JoEllen Darcy as a "political appointee" when asked about her decision to first delay then deny granting the easement permit, especially when easements customarily are granted within two weeks to any construction company that had already been granted a construction permit.
He had previously testified that if a government entity approves construction, it implicitly approves necessary easement for access to the construction location.
He said that Army Corps of Engineers Col. John Henderson had already approved the easement and was in the process of delivering it to Energy Transfer before being overruled by Darcy, who did not have authority to do so, according to Mahmoud.
Plaintiff attorneys also called law enforcement officials who were part of "cut teams" that handled cutting lockboxes, also called "dragon sleeves," which were used by protesters to attach themselves to equipment or other individuals - a tactic used to disrupt and delay.
Officer Scott Strongside, now retired, said much care and effort went into cutting protesters loose from lockboxes and equipment so that it was safe for protesters and law enforcement. He said he was involved in cutting 12 lockboxes in the fall of 2016.
When asked about the level of sophistication of the lockboxes used, Strongside said, "the majority were professional."
He also described the encounter he had with Nick Tilsen, president and chief executive officer of NDN Collective - a national organization dedicated to "indigenous power.
Tilsen testified Monday that he had connected leaders of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with another Native American Indian activist organization, Indigenous Peoples Power Project (IP3). Greenpeace employee Cy Wagoner is seated on the board of IP3.
Strongside said that Tilsen used a lockbox to tie himself to a hydraulic arm of a Caterpillar digging machine.
Plaintiff attorneys attempted to introduce video with audio of Tilsen being arrested and allegedly bragging to officers that he "was paid $90,000 by Greepeace."
Defense objected to the audio, and only the video was permitted to be played.
Another officer testifying Tuesday was Morton County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Dion Bitz, whose job was to collect evidence from protest sites.
Bitz said that among evidence collected in the fall of 2016 were body armour, gas masks, GoPro cameras, sleeping dragons, drones and propane canisters.
"It was quite overwhelming," Bitz said comparing the volume of evidence seized by his department before the protests began. He said that normally his department would colect between zero and two items per week. He said that during the protests he was seeing from 50-100 items per week.
The trial is in its second week in Morton County and is expected to last five weeks.