Brian Okum, who was arrested while protesting private jet expansion at Hanscom Field on April 20, 2024, was found guilty of trespassing on Tuesday during his trial at Concord District Court.
Okum, who was protesting with the group Extinction Rebellion Boston, or XR Boston, is on probation for one year, during which he cannot go near Hanscom Field.
During the April 20 demonstration, several members of XR Boston stood in the way of private jets at Hanscom Field. Others blocked the entrances of fixed-base operators Signature Aviation, Jet Aviation, and Atlantic Aviation, holding banners that read “no new fossil fuel infrastructure” and “private jets are leaving our kids’ future in the dust.”
Okum was found not guilty of disorderly conduct and malicious destruction of property, which is a felony. After the jury returned its verdict, Okum’s supporters, who wore green as a sign of unity and environmental support in the courtroom, let out a sigh of relief.
“[I feel] partly relieved, partly angry that there was punishment to begin with for doing something that we know is right, but to be honest, this is what I expected today,” Okum said outside the court.
“I think the commonwealth should be ashamed of themselves for prosecuting these people, especially prosecuting Brian for a felony that they had no evidence to support,” Kylah Clay, Okum’s attorney, told the Observer.
Okum was charged with a felony because of video footage that depicts a person manually opening an automatic door before the protestors descended on the area of the Field where the jets were parked. That door was found broken by staff the next day, Jay Pagliarulo, the facilities manager at Jet Aviation at Hanscom Field, testified. The commonwealth’s lawyer claimed the person in that security footage was Okum, and he acted with malice by opening that door. Clay claimed it can’t be proven that Okum is the person in that video.
If Okum was convicted of that felony charge, he would be the first climate activist to receive a felony conviction for participating in a peaceful protest in Massachusetts, a press release from XR Boston claims.
Twenty other people were arrested for protesting that day. Six of them took plea deals, Jamie McGonagill, director of media and messaging at XR Boston, told the Observer. The protestors who are moving forward with trials will each be tried individually, not as a group, Judge Sharon Lalli decided. One defendant will be tried each week until about early September.
“This signals what we can expect but it’s not a sure thing on how the next rounds will go,” Clay, who works for the National Lawyer’s Guild, which provides legal support to political activists for free, told the Observer.
Clay is poised to represent all of the protestors.
Julia Hansen was four months pregnant with her daughter, Amalia, when she was arrested for protesting at Hanscom last spring. Watching Okum receive his verdict made her feel more informed and relieved as her trial in August approaches, she told the Observer.
“I have a daughter so I have a really tangible stake in what people of her generation will face with climate change,” she said. “Everything that we see happening only enforces my conviction to keep fighting for a livable climate and for her future.”
On April 20, the XR Boston demonstrators were protesting the proposed expansion of Hanscom Airfield. A Draft Environmental Impact Report for the expansion was released a month prior, detailing plans for a 47-acre development that could bring 17 new hangars to the Field. Activists say the projected increase in carbon emissions resulting from the additional jet flights would negate most of the gains from all solar installations in the state.
Linden Jenkins, who protested alongside Okum and Hansen, will be tried on Tuesday. Parke Wilde, a professor at Tufts University, will be tried the following week.
“I hope for a fair and honest trial. On that April day, we spoke up for the Commonwealth’s own environmental principles and laws, including especially the Net Zero Action Plan,” Wilde said in XR Boston’s press release. “I trust the judge, prosecutors, and jury will hear and understand that we were acting as responsible citizens serving the public good and even the good of the state.”
I’m glad to hear the protester avoided a felony conviction, and I thank the protesters. Hanscom should not be expanding, for the sake of avoiding major increases in greenhouse emissions, as well as noise pollution.