Judge Drops Charges Against Boston Clamshell Protesters

Charges of criminal trespass on Boston Edison property against three Boston Clamshell members arrested Wednesday will be dropped by a district court and no criminal records will be established, provided they do not engage in any form of civil disobedience during the next six months, Frank J. Bove, a Clamshell staff member, said yesterday.

James A. Garrison, a student at the Divinity School, and two other members of the anti-nuclear group were arrested after conducting a sit-in at the Boston Edison Company's office at the Prudential Center.

Clamshell staged the sit-in to demand that Boston Edison cancel plans for construction of a nuclear power plant at Plymouth, Mass., and rescind the $23 million rate increase announced Tuesday, Garrison said Wednesday.

Garrison said Suffolk County District Judge Theodore Glyn's ruling of "continuance without finding" shows that in Massachusetts, unlike New Hampshire, the courts are responsive to the threat of nuclear power." He added that the judge told the demonstrators he was personally sympathetic to their cause.

Clamshell "intends to keep putting pressure on Boston Edison until we get some kind of meaningful dialogue going. People have to be made aware that nuclear power equals cancer," Garrison said.

William T. Connolly, a Boston Edison spokesman, said yesterday the company felt it "had already bent over backward for the Clamshell. They have no intention to conduct a meaningful dialogue."

Connolly refused to comment on the court's decision.