‘Babe’ Star James Cromwell Sentenced to Jail Over Power Plant Protest

Actor was arrested and charged with obstruction of traffic in 2015

Happy 4th of July weekend, James Cromwell; enjoy your jail stay.

Actor James Cromwell — whose credits include “American Horror Story: Asylum” and “Babe,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar — has been sentenced to a week in jail for refusing to pay fines stemming from the protest of a natural-gas power plant in Wawayanda, New York.

Two other protesters also received a week in jail, the Times Herald-Record reports.

Cronwell and five other protesters were arrested in December 2015 and charged with obstruction of traffic after staging a sit-in at the site of the plant, which is scheduled to go online February 2018. The protesters went to trial in April, contending that the protest, which caused a traffic jam, were justified due to the threat that the plant’s carbon emissions would pose to the environment. Despite their argument, the protesters were found guilty on June 7 and fined $250, along with a $125 surcharge.

While three protesters paid the fine, which was due Thursday, Cromwell and two others chose not to pony up.

On Thursday, Wawayanda Town Justice Timothy McElduff Jr. called the holdouts into court, asking Cromwell, “Are you refusing to pay the fine?”

“I am,” the actor answered.

Cromwell was initially ordered to begin his sentence on Friday, but that ruling was suspended until July 14, after the protesters’ lawyer asked for time to appeal the sentence.

Comments