Charges dropped for city residents arrested protesting BGE gas regulators

Charges have been dropped against three city residents arrested while protesting Baltimore Gas and Electric’s installation of external gas regulators, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said Friday.

Claudia Towles of Fells Point, Maggie Fitzsimmons of Washington Hill and Sandra Seward of Federal Hill were charged in June with interfering with a public utility, trespassing and refusal to leave after a standoff outside a home on Warren Avenue in Federal Hill.

For most of the day, the woman stood in the way of a large drill and a line of BGE workers. They were arrested and spent the night in jail before being released.

In a news release, Bates said the charges against the women would have been dismissed via the city’s citation docket program after the completion of community service had the three been cited rather than arrested.

“Having spent approximately 19 hours in central booking, following their arrests for interfering with BGE’s work and creating a disturbance in a public place, these individuals have sustained consequences we believe are sufficient and allow us to move forward with dismissal,” he said.

The women were attempting to prevent BGE from shutting off the gas to five homes on the street without proper notice, which they said happened to four neighboring homes earlier that week after owners refused to consent to having external gas regulators installed.

BGE has been relocating interior regulators as part of a project to replace aging natural gas pipes and equipment throughout the Baltimore region. The company has argued that the outside regulators create less of a safety risk than indoor gas pressure devices the utility used in the past and has installed in other neighborhoods, and also offer easier access during emergencies.

Members of communities across the city, including Fells Point, Federal Hill and West Baltimore, however, have pushed back. They filed a class-action lawsuit June 23 aimed at stopping BGE from forcing residents to accept equipment they say is obtrusive and unsafe. A Baltimore judge ordered a halt to installations without consent until Sept. 5.

On Thursday, several members of Baltimore City Council said they will the introduce legislation that would ban outdoor regulators from single family homes.