CANYON CITY As the second megaload gets under way, 15 protesters arrested during the first loads journey through John Day last week are facing court action.

The 15 were arraigned Wednesday, Dec. 18, and pleaded not guilty to an array of misdemeanor charges in Grant County Justice Court. Each faces counts of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief; several also were charged with reckless endangerment, and one was charged with interception of communication.

The counts stem from the night of Dec. 16, when protesters disabled vehicles in the path of the megaload, delaying but not stopping its move.

A 16-year-old girl, also apprehended at the protests, was released to family friends.

The adults bailed out of Grant County Jail after Justice of the Peace Kathy Stinnett set security at $10,000/$1,000 bail for each of them. She also set conditions for their release, including:

No contact with Omega Morgan or its employees.

No coming within 1,000 feet of materials, equipment or other loads being transported by Omega Morgan.

No possession of dragon sleeves or other items used to lock oneself to fixed objects to prevent safe extraction.

Arrested were: Ameila Hudson, 20, Portland; Carolos Voli, 48, Edmonds, Wash.; Kyle Miskell, 27, Seattle, Wash.; Emmalynn Garrett, 29, Portland; Karen Looney, 28, Seattle; Jonathan Batchelor, 28, Eugene; Geneva Gill, 36, Eugene; Mauro Deoliveira, 53, Montgomery Creek, Calif.; Johannes Pedersen, 25, Portland; Tara Dragani, 25, Eugene; Brittany Osland, 25, Soldotna, Alaska; Gracy Pettygrove, 25, Eugene; Chanel Warzynski, 22, Eugene; Cordelia Finley, 19, Eugene; and Jeremy Jensen, 31, Eureka, Calif.

In the first incident, two protesters identified by an Oregon State Police report as Hudson and Voli secured themselves to each other with a dragon sleeve, connected through holes cut in the floor of a vehicle that was disabled in the middle of the road.

OSP said protesters flattened the car tires and broke the key so the vehicle couldnt be moved easily.

OSP said the dragon sleeve consisted of two pieces of steel pipe welded at an angle, coated in tar, and covered in layers of chicken wire and duct tape. The protesters were linked by a wrist cable and bolt arrangement in the sleeve.

In all, five protesters were arrested at that site.

Sheriff Glenn Palmer said the protesters were told to unhook from the device, which had a self-release mechanism, but refused. He said police had to call for the Jaws of Life extrication equipment, and emergency workers used it to cut into the car so the protesters could be removed.

Palmer said the two in the dragon sleeves were removed from the scene, and then they released themselves from the device.

The other 10 arrests occurred in a second incident at milepost 164, at the east end of John Day. Police said about 20 protesters had gathered there and pulled a small utility trailer onto the highway, with one protester hooked up to it. Another protester was secured by a dragon sleeve to a 55-gallon barrel, which had been filled with concrete, in the trailer.

Police eventually lifted the trailer and dragged the barrel and connected protester to the roadside to reopen the highway.

The removals drew criticism from protest supporters, who accused the police of using pain compliance tactics to counter a peaceful demonstration.

Asked to define the tactics, Trip Jennings, a spokesman for the Rising Tide climate change activism group, said one person was dragged across the asphalt and there were reports from people who said they were bruised when police removed the lockdown devices. He said police removed one protesters coat sleeve in the effort to remove the dragon sleeve, calling that action pretty significant in the sub-freezing temperatures.

Palmer denied there was any unnecessary force or pain compliance in the arrests. He said no officers have filed a use of force report, which would be required if pain-compliance holds were applied.

He said the protesters had repeated opportunities to unhook and move.

We were very verbal, he said. And there was no pepper spray, no tasers, no night sticks, nothing like that. Nobody pulled a gun.

Palmer confirmed that an officer dragged one woman to the side of the road because she was connected to the concrete barrel being moved out of the road. He said she was first told to unhook from the barrel device, and refused.

Palmer said the responders had to literally pick up the trailer and move it.

Palmer said everyone who was arrested was an active participant in the action to block the highway.

The incidents drew sheriffs deputies, OSP troopers, John Day Police, as well as ambulance crews and firefighters from John Day, Canyon City, Mt. Vernon and Prairie City.

Palmer said one protester came to the Sheriffs Office last week to file a complaint about bruising on her arm, but wouldnt show her arm. She said you couldnt see the bruising, he said.

Rising Tide pressed its perspective in a different forum last Friday, protesting at the Oregon Department of Transportation office in downtown Portland. The group called for an end to the transports on state highways and through tribal lands.

In a letter to ODOT, the group said the protesters took the risk of arrest to do what you have refused to do: to stop the movement of materials that damage the public good, destroy the global commons, and shred indigenous rights.

In a media release Monday, Rising Tide touted the efforts to stall the shipments and called the 19 arrests since the protests began mostly illegal.