New Westminster/Abbotsford – Four animal rights activists—Amy Soranno, Jeff Rigear, Roy Sasano, and Nick Schafer—who are charged with Trespassing, Break and Enter and Mischief, while allegedly exposing animal cruelty at Excelsior Hog Farm in the spring of 2019, made their second appearance at the Abbotsford Provincial Courthouse on Monday, November 2, 2021.
The defendants—known as the Excelsior 4—were arrested in August 2021. They face 21 combined charges of Break and Enter and Criminal Mischief. If convicted, they could face “decades in prison” according to their August 2021 media release.
The jury trial was set for June 27, 2022 at the BC Supreme Court in Abbotsford and now moved to New Westminster. Their trial is expected to last 19 days.
The “Excelsior 4” have a 10-day pretrial hearing scheduled for Monday March 28, 2022.
The original FVN story is here.
From their supports on a private Facebook page:
Thank you for your interest in supporting The Excelsior 4, as they embark on pre-trial and trial in the BC Supreme Court. Amy Soranno, Nick Schafer, Roy Sasano, and Geoff Regier – known as The Excelsior 4 – are facing 21 indictable offences (the highest criminal level in Canada), and the potential for decades in prison, all for revealing what happens to animals inside commercial farms and for holding the industry accountable for criminal animal abuse.They are going on trial by jury, and pre-trial by judge, in the BC Supreme Court, and will use this opportunity to further expose the rampant violence and suffering in animal agriculture, and the complicity of our justice and enforcement systems. In order to draw media attention, and make the biggest possible impact, The Excelsior 4 needs our support.
