HAMLIN — Ten environmental activists have pleaded guilty to trespassing at a Lincoln County mountaintop coal mine.

Media outlets report the protesters entered their pleas Tuesday in Lincoln County Magistrate Court. They were assessed $660 in fines and court costs apiece and ordered to stay off West Virginia mine property for a year. Nine others pleaded guilty last week.

20 members of the group Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival or RAMPS who went onto the property of Patriot Coal’s Hobet Mining and chained themselves to heavy equipment in protest of surface mining activities.

• MetroNews reported on Wednesday that one of those arrested in a recent anti-mining protest in Lincoln County is now back in custody.

State Police arrested 34-year old Peter Bryan Garcia Tuesday in Madison. He’s charged with failing to register as a sexual offender. Garcia had already been arrested once on July 28th with trespassing and obstruction in West Virginia.

Garcia pled guilty to trespassing in the case. He was fined the maximum $500 and given one year probation with an order he not enter mine property in West Virginia. The Lincoln County Magistrate Court says he has not paid his fine or the $160 in court fees.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement website indicates Garcia was convicted in 2002 on a charge of using the Internet to solicit or attempt to solicit a child for sex. His conviction required he register for life as a convicted sex offender.