Biography
Retired state IT manager and Valve Turner who shut off the Enbridge Express tar sands pipeline in Chouteau County, Montana on October 11, 2016. Convicted of felony criminal mischief and misdemeanor trespass; received a three-year deferred sentence with no jail time. The trial court denied his climate-necessity defense.
On March 3, 2020, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed Higgins’s convictions and $3,755.47 restitution award in State v. Higgins, 2020 MT 52. The opinion identifies the written judgment and sentence as issued April 23, 2018 and describes a three-year deferred sentence for felony criminal mischief and a concurrent six-month suspended sentence for misdemeanor trespass. It upheld exclusion of his proposed necessity defense and the associated jury instructions. The restitution included $937.69 in replacement costs and $2,817.78 in employee expenses responding to the October 11, 2016 pipeline shutdown. Deferred and suspended terms do not establish time physically served in prison. Source: https://climatecasechart.com/wp-content/uploads/case-documents/2020/20200303_docket-DA-18-0233_opinion.pdf#page=1
