Six people pleaded guilty to trespassing charges in Charleston Municipal Court on Wednesday after staging a June sit-in at Shelley Moore Capito's office to protest a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
Kayla Parker, Joe Solomon, Terry Pickett, the Rev. Jim Lewis, Bill Price and Paul Dalzell were all ordered to pay $162 in fines and court costs.
At the hearing, each of the defendants issued statements to Judge Anne B. Charnock before their pleas were accepted. They all used the statement as a forum to air their grievances against Capito for her vote in favor of the failed effort to repeal the law also known as Obamacare.
Capito did not attend the hearing. A spokeswoman from her office declined to comment for this report.
In a 2 a.m. vote in August, the U.S. Senate struck down a partial repeal of the ACA 51-49, with Capito voting in the minority. She also supported a procedural vote to bring the potential replacement bill to the Senate floor. However, she voted against a full repeal with no working replacement.
Speaking before a full courtroom, each of the activist offered brief statements.
Dalzell: "This is not about me, this is about the 175,000 West Virginians that would have lost their health care had we not done this. It's about the over 10,000 health care workers that would have lost their jobs because of this. And it's about people like me who work 40 plus hours a week and have no health care. That's why we did this."
Lewis: "On June 25 I joined five brothers and sisters in attempting to get Senator Capito to stand in opposition to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and I refused to leave her office because she was unwilling to declare herself, she refused to make a commitment final ... I could do nothing else but resist Senator Capito's unwillingness to protect the health and welfare of so many people."
Parker: "I was moved to trespass because so many of my congregants have so many problems with accessing health care, even now. So I do plead guilty and I also hope that it brings some justice to a greater system that isn't serving our people."
Pickett: "Health care is, some people think it's a right, but I think it is our duty as human beings and citizens to take care of the people who need help. What's going on right now in Congress, if it keeps going this way, it's not going to happen, and West Virginians will suffer. So I am glad to join the people who have done civil disobedience, and I have to tell you, people have thanked us from all over the country because we have stood up for people who don't have health care."
Price: "It is my hope that Senator Capito will be held responsible for her actions, even if not in the legal system, that people will understand that her vote that we were there to protest is affecting thousands and thousands of individuals. A value that I have is that health care is a right for everyone, it's a human right, and that's why we were standing in solidarity."
Solomon: "I guess I wanted to believe when Senator Capito uttered the words, 'I did not come to Washington to hurt people' that, I don't know, that she meant them ... In the end, the Senator voted to strip health care from 16 million Americans and tens of thousands of fellow, worthy West Virginians. So to be clear, I'm guilty. I plead guilty, but to naiveté, to believing the Senator wouldn't vote to hurt us, to believing that the soul of democracy still lives."
Reach Jake Zuckerman at jake.zuckerman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @jake_zuckerman on Twitter.