San Joaquin Hills Tollway Protesters Reach No-Jail Plea Agreement : Transportation: Eight Earth First! activists who chained themselves to bulldozers promise to stay away from construction sites but not to stop fighting the road project.

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  Eight Earth First! activists arrested last year for chaining themselves to bulldozers about to begin construction of the San Joaquin Hills tollway have promised not to do it again in exchange for a penalty limited to 10 days of community service and informal probation.

According to the plea agreement reached Monday, one day before the case was to go to trial, the activists pleaded no contest to charges of trespassing and failing to disperse. They also promised not to set foot on transportation corridor construction sites in Laguna Hills and Laguna Niguel until 1996.

“It’s not that we won’t demonstrate or harass,” said Patrick T. Mitchell, 27, one of the defendants. “It’s just going to take our demonstrations in a new direction; it will force us to be a little more creative.”

A hearing is set for July 8 at Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel to determine whether and how much the activists should pay in restitution for lost income and expenses associated with their actions.

The arrests stemmed from an incident on Sept. 27 in which the activists, opposing the new road for environmental reasons, chained themselves to bulldozers at the tollway construction site. They were cut free several hours later by firefighters. The protest tied up eight pieces of earthmoving equipment for about 3 1/2 hours.

Taken to the Laguna Niguel sheriff’s substation, the eight protesters were charged with two misdemeanors, each of which carries a maximum six-month jail term and $1,000 fine. All were released the same night.

Deputy district attorney Matt McCormick, the prosecutor on the case, said Monday that he was satisfied with the outcome.

“I think it was a fair disposition all the way around,” he said. “The defendants seemed very satisfied, and everybody was impressed with the work the commissioner put in.”

During their two-year probation, the eight activists will be required to pay any restitution determined by the court and stay away from transportation corridor construction sites. They will not, Schwartz said, be required to report regularly to a probation officer.

Mitchell on Monday said that the group still believed it had done nothing wrong but decided to settle to avoid a prolonged trial.

“Our feeling was that we would be a lot more effective outside the courtroom,” he said. “We just feel it’s time to move on. There is some real work to do out there.”

The eight are Michael S. Richey of Costa Mesa; Bradford W. Berger of Irvine; Nicole A. Gasparik of Irvine; Martin C. Stout of Oceanside; Mitchell of Garden Grove; Udo Wald of San Diego; Geoff S. Neilson of Tustin and Kristin A. Painter of Santa Ana.