Charges against six wind farm opponents arrested during a rally last September in Ocean City, NJ were dropped this week and their records were expunged, the OCNJ Daily reported.

Two of those opponents were Bonna Weinstein, 59, and her husband, Robert Weinstein, 73, of Ocean City and Abington Township.

According to the Daily, roughly 60 protesters attended the rally to push back against a proposed Ocean Wind 1 project. The work called for drilling holes in the street for an underground transmission cable that would link offshore wind turbines with a land-based electric grid.

Six protestors, including the Weinsteins, didn’t relocate after police asked the group to move about 10 feet down the road. According to the Daily, they laid down in the street and were subsequently arrested and charged with two disorderly persons offenses, failure to disperse and obstruction of highways or public pathways.

Weinstein told the Daily that they decided to attend the rally “because they believed that the wind farm would be bad for the ocean and the environment,” Bonna said.

“We love Ocean City. We purchased our house in 2013. It was never about protecting our property values, like some people say when they speak out against the wind farm. It is about keeping things beautiful – keeping the ocean beautiful, not making it a metal junkyard with turbines,” Bonna said. “We participated because the earth and the ocean cannot speak for themselves, and we have a duty to keep them as beautiful as we found it.”

The couple, now grandparents, are happy the ordeal is over.

“The lawyer did a wonderful job and we think the court did an amazing thing,” Weinstein added. “It made me believe in and love Ocean City even more.”

Ocean City Police Chief William Campbell declined comment Saturday about the charges being dismissed.

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Photo courtesy of Suzanne Hornick