Elbit Systems of America is the U.S. subsidiary of Israel\'s largest defense contractor. Its New Hampshire facility manufactures drone components and electronic warfare equipment used in Israeli operations in Gaza. On the morning of November 20, 2023, four activists chained themselves to the facility\'s doors and to construction equipment, halting operations for several hours. The action was part of a multi-city Palestine Action US campaign targeting Elbit\'s North American footprint.
The defendants
The four defendants — known by supporters as the Merrimack 4 — are Sophie Ross, Calla Walsh, Bridget Shergalis, and Paige Belanger. All four are young women in their early 20s; all four had no prior felony record. New Hampshire prosecutors charged each with felony riot under RSA 644:1, felony criminal mischief over $1,500 of damage, and misdemeanor criminal trespass. The maximum exposure on the felony riot count alone is seven years state-prison time.
Why the charging is unusual
Felony riot prosecutions of non-violent blockaders are rare. The statute typically requires that the defendants joined a group of at least six engaged in disorderly conduct that threatened public safety. The Merrimack 4 were four people locked to objects on private commercial property. Defense counsel from the National Lawyers Guild argued through 2024 that the charge as applied was a clear over-extension designed to inflate criminal exposure and chill the Palestine Action US campaign.
The criminal-mischief felony charge rested on the state\'s damage valuation, which defense counsel disputed in pretrial motions. The state alleged $1,500+ in damage; defense moved to compel the state to produce repair invoices and documentary substantiation.
The 2024 docket
Through 2024 the case moved through arraignment, pretrial motions, and discovery in Hillsborough Superior Court — Southern District in Nashua. The defendants raised the necessity defense (action taken to prevent imminent harm — in this case, Elbit\'s contribution to civilian deaths in Gaza); the state moved to bar the defense at trial. Pretrial rulings on the necessity defense became, themselves, a national-organizing focal point for the Palestine Action US campaign and adjacent direct-action networks.
National civil-liberties and movement-defense organizations — the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee, the Civil Liberties Defense Center — provided amicus and legal support. Fundraising for the Merrimack 4 defense was coordinated through Defend the Merrimack 4.
The pattern
The Merrimack 4 prosecution sits alongside parallel U.S. felony-charging escalations of Palestine-solidarity weapons-manufacturer blockaders in 2024 — at Pittsburgh\'s Boeing facility, at New Jersey\'s Lockheed Martin operations, at the Holtec nuclear-components plant in New Jersey, at the General Dynamics facility in Vermont. The pattern is consistent: state and federal prosecutors charging non-violent factory blockades at the highest possible end of the available statute, in jurisdictions where the political balance permits a tough-on-protest framing.
As of end-of-2024 the Merrimack 4 case remained pending. NPPC tracks the matter and will publish updates as the cases move toward trial. The defendants\' campaign asks supporters to attend court days, contribute to legal-defense funds, and amplify the Defend the Merrimack 4 channels.
