As the case against the five Midland Sewage Plant protestors was deliberated in a Syracuse City Courtroom yesterday, the defendants waited outside, hoping their case would be dropped.

Instead of hearing news of the charges being dropped, though, the defendants’ lawyer, Faith Seidenberg, emerged after less than half an hour of discussion to tell her clients they would be headed to trial.

‘The judge said he wouldn’t hear the motion (for dismissal),’ said Curtis Rumrill, a senior majoring in music composition and one of two Syracuse University students among the five arrested. ‘But it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to hear the argument.’

After each side presented their cases, Judge Thomas W. Higgins, Jr. ruled that the case should, after all, head to trial, said Mark Breen, 20, of Syracuse and one of the five defendants arrested in July for trespassing on the plant’s grounds. No further actions will be taken until the case’s next scheduled court appearance on May 24, 2005.

‘The judge wants a full trial,’ Breen said. ‘It was more or less what we were expecting. But if we had our way, we wouldn’t be in court.’

The wait was a difficult one for the defendants, as only the attorneys were allowed in the courtroom for the discussion, which the defendants had no knowledge of heading into the courthouse yesterday morning.

‘It was a little nerve-wracking,’ Rumrill said of not knowing how the arguments were progressing.

Only three of the five members of the Oxford Five, as they refer to themselves, showed up at the courthouse for yesterday’s deliberations, though. Since being arrested in July, protestor Laura MacDonald has moved to Ithaca, and was unable to make the trip up to Syracuse, and Gary Bonaparte, meanwhile, was on vacation in Minnesota.

Rumrill said he was not concerned about their absence, though, and downplayed the importance of yesterday’s decision.

‘I can’t imagine anybody would go to jail because of this,’ he said, also noting that were a fine to be imposed on them, it would probably be a minor one.

But such a punishment would seem to be a step backward for the Five, who, on Nov. 5, turned down a plea bargain that would have forced them to pay a court fee, as well as perform 50 hours of community service.

‘The plea bargain felt like an admission of guilt,’ Rumrill said. ‘We were hoping to get all charges dropped. We felt that wasn’t appropriate for the actions we’d taken. And we were hoping these arguments would happen today and we wouldn’t have to go through the pains of a trial.’

Nonetheless, it now appears as if that they will have to do so. While Rumrill and Breen each focused on the positives of the extended process – which allows them to generate more interest in their cause – they also realize that it means they will have a much larger amount of work ahead of them.

There is another silver lining for the Oxford Five in the prolonging of the case, though. It will provide the Environmental Protection Agency with more time – and a greater sense of urgency – to investigate the case of the Midland Sewage Plant’s being built in a low-income housing area.

If the EPA finds the development to be a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as the Oxford Five has claimed, such backing could help legitimize the defendants in the public eye, Rumrill said.

‘There’s still a chance the charges will be dropped,’ Rumrill said, ‘but we feel good about going to trial. We believe in our action and we believe it was justified.’

Published on November 18, 2004 at 12:00 pm