(NaturalNews) For over a year now, The Free Thought Project website has been following the travails of a Minnesota man who risked jail time over his refusal to remove a wind turbine from his property.

Jay Nygard, who owns a green energy business, has been in and out of court for several years now over his refusal to take down a wind turbine he installed on his property. A year ago, he won what turned out to be a short-lived legal victory. Just recently, however, he was back in court facing yet another charge for again refusing an order to remove the turbines from his property.

As The Free Thought Project reported, Nygard did eventually remove the turbines, leaving only the cement bases — and understandably so, as the latter's removal would have resulted in damage to the foundation of his home.

However, for the little Stalin wannabes in Orono, Minnesota — that wasn't good enough. Ignoring the advice and recommendations of three different structural engineers, local government officials demanded that Nygard also remove the concrete turbine bases as well, regardless of whether doing so will damage his home.

Removal not good enough

After his continuous refusal, Nygard was finally arrested and, according to his son, Kahler, sentenced to six months in jail — all for refusing to remove the concrete base of a clean energy wind turbine (not so ironically, Nygard's business is called Go Green Energy).

What's more, Kahler said his father attempted to make peace with the local government nannies and compromise on several fronts, but they would have none of that.

"The choices for my dad were to potentially destroy our foundation in the house or go to jail, he even offered an olive branch saying he would add an easement to the deed saying when the house is demolished the pad must be removed, but that was ignored also," Kahler said in an interview with The Free Thought Project.

"The base was level with the ground and 4 feet cubed. We removed the top half of the concrete and used a metal cutting tool to remove the top half of the bolt assembly, rendering the structure unusable," Kahler said.

"They say that we have to remove to footing 100% and have it inspected by the city, which we have three different engineers all saying we should just leave it, one of them even does contract work for the city," he added.

The son added that while there are no ordinances against turbines and windmills, he believes the county came down hard on his father over a personal grudge.

Goodbye, property rights

For his part, the elder Nygard said he should be able to do what he wishes on his own property, but in the United States — a country founded, in part, on the principles of individualism and property rights — that liberty is increasingly under assault, not only by local and state governments, but also by federal bureaucracies like the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last year when he briefly won a court battle, Nygard said:

"I am happy to announce that the Hennepin County District Court has chosen to honor MN state law and overturn the City Of Orono's complete ban of wind turbines. This is a big victory for Green Energy, and my company, Go Green Energy, in its long standing push to bring Micro Wind Turbines to the Minnesota market. I am personally thrilled to see that the district court has affirmed my position on the importance of Green Energy in our society. I am also pleased to see clearly stated in the order the property rights that I have been denied during my continued litigation with the City of Orono."

A local Fox News affiliate reported at the time that the court was forbidding the city from enforcing its windmill ordinance, according to The Free Thought Project. The court ruled that the city could regulate windmills and turbines, but not ban them.

Apparently, that ruling must have been vacated or overturned.

One other thing: When Americans complain about high incarceration rates in the United States, this is the kind of stuff they are referring to — being jailed for petty victimless behavior that are "crimes" only because a small minority of busybodies decided to make them so.

Sources:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

NaturalNews.com

CNBC.com