After the verdict, DeChristopher, 29, and dozens of supporters emerged in song from Salt Lake City’s federal courthouse, where they where met by other backers, who wept and joined in the songs. Some hugged their hero."We now know I’ll have to go to prison," DeChristopher said. "That’s the job I have to do."
He faces up to 10 years behind bars when he is sentenced later."If we want to achieve our vision," DeChristopher said. "Many more will have to join me."DeChristopher also told his supporters that he’s "not one finger, easily broken, but part of a fist."
"Tim has shown the power of civil disobedience to shine a light," said Bill McKibben, who wrote a landmark book about climate change more than two decades ago. "The government should be giving him a medal, not a sentence."
McKibben credited DeChristopher for his "brave and lonely stand" and issued a warning to federal authorities and a challenge to other eco-activists.
"Just in case the federal government thinks that it’s intimidating people into silence with this kind of prosecution, think again," he said in an e-mail. "In fact, this is precisely the sort of event that reminds us just why we need a real, mass mobilization to stop the climate crisis."
"When a person breaks the law, there are consequences," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber said. "He crossed the boundaries when he left the lawful protest [outside the BLM auction] to go inside and do what he did. ... He chose a path of illegality and criminal conduct."
Huber told the jury of eight men and four women that DeChristopher knew what he was doing as he drove up bid prices and eventually won more than a dozen parcels without the intention of paying for them.But defense attorney Ron Yengich said DeChristopher had no intention of violating the law on Dec. 19, 2008.
"The government," Yengich said, "skips over the critical context here, which is that we’re dealing with a very young man who did have a fervor and a zeal for the environmental movement" but who ultimately was not a criminal. Yengich called DeChristopher "a young man who was playing a game."
"He wanted to raise a red flag," he said. "He wanted to make a statement. That’s what he wanted to do. His desire was not to thwart the auction. ... He wanted people to think about the consequences that the auction was bringing to bear on other people. But it was never his intention to harm anyone.
"He wanted to give some hope to people," Yengich said. "Now you may disagree with the way he went about it. ... The government may believe it’s a crime. But that was his purpose for being there. It wasn’t to violate a crime."
The prosecution disputed DeChristopher’s testimony that he had no intention of bidding at the auction but became caught up in the moment. "The man, who was there to make a stand, he hedged," Huber said. "He minimized. He backed off from his grand accomplishment.
"Was this a mistake?" Huber added. "Not after 14 parcels and $1.8 million."
Earlier on Thursday, DeChristopher entered Salt Lake City’s federal courthouse to applause from supporters.
DeChristopher on Wednesday testified he did not initially intend to place bogus bids on drilling parcels and was not fully aware of the criminal consequences of his actions at the time. He has maintained he took action in an effort to thwart the global-climate crisis.
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