Court throws out $4,300 restitution in pipeline protest

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (AP) - A man ordered to pay $4,300 for his sit-in at an oil pipeline in southwestern Michigan will get another day in court.

The Michigan appeals court set aside the restitution Tuesday and sent the case back to a Battle Creek judge. If prosecutors still want to collect from Christopher Wahmhoff, they can’t seek reimbursement for the ordinary cost of a police investigation.

Wahmhoff was convicted of trespassing and resisting police during a 10-hour sit-in at an Enbridge pipe that was under construction in Calhoun County in 2013. He declined to apologize and didn’t ask for leniency when he was sentenced to probation.

Enbridge is a Canadian company responsible for a pipeline break that released more than 800,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River system in 2010.