Katie Kloth, aka Krow, is an activist, artist, forager, sustainable farmer, and biologist who has been committed to struggles to protect the environment and liberate all life for many years, and has spent the last several years organizing against the proposed Penokee mine in the north woods of Wisconsin, USA.

On June 11th, 2013, she was cited by the Iron County Sheriff for theft due to her alleged involvement in a rowdy protest earlier that day that disrupted bore hole drilling on the Penokee Range.  Since it was considered such a minor crime, she was neither arrested nor detained that day.

On June 21st, it was announced that the Iron County District Attorney increased the charges to robbery with use of force (a class E felony), two counts of criminal damage to property and one charge of theft of movable property (<=$2500).

It is apparent that the prosecutor gave into outside political pressure and that the charges were trumped up. The state legislature and powerful mining corporations seek to make an example out of anyone who dares to step out of line.

In these struggles, the police are never ‘on our side,’ because they are NOT employed to enforce what is “moral” or “right” by a utilitarian standard, the are only employed to enforce the law. The law is determined by those who have enough money to buy the legislature. The police protect the people with the most money and if individual officers decide otherwise, they will likely lose their job. Because they are “just doing their job” we must understand that they will always be here to protect GTAC, not us.

With the help of the media, GTAC is trying to tear apart the movement of those who want to save the Hills and protect the water, but we must strive to stay united, keep criticisms of tactics internal to “the movement” and keep the wider focus on those that want to destroy the precious water, not those that are fighting to defend it. We must support each other, hold G-TAC accountable for their egregious acts against our mother Earth. Earth is our home and we must act to defend it. Regardless of the diversity of tactics that will be used, we need to show solidarity with all who strive to stop the Penokee mine, and focus on just that, stopping the Penokee mine.”- Penokee Defenders

 

support-krow-poster(Text above)

Krow had pleaded No Contest to two charges last September.

Krow’s attorney, John C. Bachman of Eau Claire, Wisconsin said he had never seen so many letters of support in a criminal case today as at this hearing.

“Katie is an intelligent and skilled botanist who has much to teach about the natural world,” said environmental activist and former Ashland County Sheriff Rob Ganson of Citizens Concerned about the Proposed Penokee Mine in a letter to  Judge Fox.

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Ms. Kloth made a motion for a new judge in March 2014, as is her right (unique among the 50 states) to move jurisdiction to another county in Wisconsin for no stated cause.

Good move.

The District Attorney, Iron County’s Martin Lipske, is a corrupt jurist, suspended for discipline in 1990, and like Iron County Judge Patrick Madden is not a jurist with whom you want to be dealing when you are protesting what would be the world’s largest open pit taconite mine in Iron County.

Lipske, incredibly (but not for Lipske), had asked the judge for 15-year prison sentence

via Mal Contends

Krow was sentenced today to serve nine months in Iron County jail before a packed courtroom in Hurley, Wisconsin, and was described by the presiding judge as committing an offense on the low end of the spectrum at a political protest in 2013.

Two sentences of six and three months are ordered to be served consecutively by Ms. Kloth who is eligible for work release and has two weeks to report to jail. “Kloth will have five years of probation with the felony charge and two years with the misdemeanor,” notes the Ashland Daily Press.

The presiding judge, Price County Judge Douglas T. Fox, said a prison sentence was not “appropriate,” and withheld requested prison sentences, rejecting Iron County DA Martin Lipske’s appeals.

Lipske is notoriously corrupt and known for fronting for Gogebic Taconite (GTAC).

GTAC’s $80,000 request for restitution was rejected in full.

A source in Iron County says Iron County DA Lipske, after being rebuffed today by Judge Fox, is now working on new charges against Ms. Kloth.

Lipske will not be satisfied until he has inflicted as much pain as possible on Ms. Kloth and will contrive virtually any charge in his ongoing abuse of process and malicious prosecution of Ms. Kloth.

The new charge is now Bail Jumping, a Class H Felony, though Ms. Kloth has never missed an appearance.

Reached today by phone, Lipske said there is a forbidden area in the forest of Iron County on which Ms. Kloth set foot.

The case is State of Wisconsin vs. Katie M. Kloth, Iron County Case Number 2015CF000001. Lipske said he is touch with Kloth attorney, John C. Bachman of Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Lipske claims that entering the forbidden zone in the Penokee Hills last Sunday constitutes “Bail Jumping.“

 “On Sunday, at least 45 people snowshoed into the ‘forbidden zone,’ an off-limits mining zone in the Penokees established by Gogebic Taconite (GTAC) through the Wisconsin DNR, to peacefully protest the proposed mining in the region,” reports Amber Mullen, Ashland Daily Press.

Objectively, Iron County District Attorney Martin Lipske is a despicable human being who should be investigated for misconduct again, and have his license suspended again by the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.

Lipske said he had no choice but to pursue another felony charge though the political protest case is effectively closed.

via Mal Contends