The controversial felony conviction of a peaceful climate activist has been overturned by an appeals court due to “pervasive” prosecutorial misconduct.
Mylene Vialard, 56, was found guilty of felony obstruction in 2023 for her role in trying to halt construction of a fossil-fuel pipeline through Indigenous territory in Minnesota, in a trial beset by irregularities.
Vialard was charged after attaching herself to a 25ft bamboo tower erected to block a pumping station in Aitkin county in August 2021, as part of a crackdown on non-violent Indigenous-led protests opposing the expansion and re-routing on Line 3 – a 1,097-mile tar sands oil pipeline with a dismal safety record that crosses more than 200 bodies of water from Alberta in Canada to refineries in the US midwest.
According to legal groups representing the activists, Vialard was among more than a thousand arrests by Minnesota law enforcement – which along with other agencies reportedly received at least $8.6m in payments from the Canadian company Enbridge behind Line 3.
On Monday, the conviction was overturned and a new trial ordered by the Minnesota court of appeals.
“Weighing the relevant factors, we conclude that the prosecutorial misconduct conceded to by the state was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The state’s evidence against Vialard was not particularly strong, the misconduct was pervasive, and the district court’s instructions did not cure any prejudicial effect of the misconduct,” the three-judge panel found.
“We therefore conclude that the prosecutor failed to meet his affirmative obligation to ensure that Vialard received a fair trial, and instead sought a conviction at any price. Accordingly, Vialard is entitled to a new trial,” the written judgement concluded.
Vialard and her legal team welcomed the ruling.
“It is everyone’s role to resist bullies and protect the only world we have that can feed and provide for all of us humans and non-humans,” Vialard told the Guardian in a statement.
“I’m glad that the appellate court recognized the plethora of misconduct from the prosecution and the judge during my trial and acknowledged the fact that the prosecutorial arguments that led to my guilty verdict were weak at best. But let’s not forget that we were fighting the heavy polluter that is Enbridge, and that fight continues,” Vialard said.
“This case involved egregious, pervasive misconduct, and we’re glad the court of appeals recognized that Mylene was robbed of a fair trial in this case,” said Claire Glenn, one of Vialard’s attorneys from the Climate Defense Project. “This system is supposed to be about accountability, but too often prosecutors are not held accountable.”
The Aitkin county attorney’s office has been contacted for comment.
The week-long trial in August 2021 was beset by delays and legal arguments amid multiple alleged violations by the prosecution.
In one incident, a sheriff’s deputy was caught broadcasting the Zoom audio from inside the courtroom into the public hallways of the courthouse, which is used by jurors and witnesses alike – in violation of sequestration rules and the court’s own pre-trial order barring public Zoom access to the trial.
In court, the prosecutor incorrectly claimed Vialard was not an American citizen – she was born in France – and that she had been trespassing when arrested, despite having been repeatedly admonished by the judge as a trespass charge was previously dismissed.
Nevertheless, Vialard was found guilty and had been facing a 12-month jail sentence. At the time, she told the Guardian that she had “no regrets”.
Overall, at least 967 criminal charges were filed, including several people charged under the state’s new critical infrastructure protection legislation – approved as part of a wave of anti-protest laws inspired by the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), a rightwing group backed by fossil-fuel companies.
This included Jill Ferguson, a 70-year-old grandmother from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was found guilty of obstructing legal process (interference with a peace office), a misdemeanour, and sentenced to two days in prison with time served for her role in a protest in July 2021 in Clearwater county.
“I am guilty. Guilty of protecting the headwaters of the Mississippi river, so this is a badge of honor,” Ferguson told the Guardian at the time.
