Marin Women Vow To Continue To Fight SmartMeters
SAN RAFAEL (KCBS/BCN) - Two Marin County mothers who were arrested for trying to prevent PG&E crews from installing SmartMeters, have received a warning from the district attorney's office, but the women say they are not willing to drop the issue.
Katharina Sandizell said Deputy District Attorney Dorothy Proudfoot told her charges won't be filed now, but she might be prosecuted if she is arrested at another SmartMeter protest during the next year.
KCBS' Dave Padilla Reports:
"The district attorney doesn't want to deal with SmartMeters in a public way because it's so controversial," Sandizell said.
Neither Proudfoot nor Marin County District Attorney Ed Berberian returned calls to confirm Sandizell's account of the meeting Wednesday morning at the district attorney's office.
Sandizell, 41, and Kristin McCrory, 32, of Inverness were cited for disobeying a police officer when they failed to get out of the road so traffic could pass at the protest in Inverness Park on Dec. 29, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.
The women, who were released at the scene, were among 25 people who were trying to block 10 Wellington Energy trucks on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard.
"I feel very confident that there are other people who would risk arrest if need be, so that I don't have to do it again," said a woman identified only as June.
PG&E is contracting with Pittsburgh-based Wellington Energy to install the controversial wireless meters in California.
Opponents believe the devices emit unsafe high-intensity microwave radiation and inflate actual energy usage. PG&E has consistently denied the allegations.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors in January passed an ordinance calling for a moratorium on the installation of SmartMeters in Marin County.
Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle and Berberian have said the county has no legal means of prohibiting PG&E from installing the meters.
Sandizell said Wednesday morning the West Marin Citizens Against Wireless Smart Meters wants the sheriff's office to issue citations against PG&E for installing the meters in violation of the ordinance so the issue can "go through the due process in the court system."
Sandizell said she doesn't plan to be arrested again, but she would not rule it out.
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office also decided not to file charges this month against two women who were arrested at a SmartMeter protest in Rohnert Park on Jan. 11.
The women were arrested for misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a police officer after they refused to move out of the way of a big-rig they believed was delivering SmartMeters to a building on State Farm Drive.
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