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Anti-Israel activist Calla Walsh was unrepentant as she faced sentencing in Hillsborough Superior Court — South on Thursday for her role in the vandalism attack on Elibit Systems in Merrimack.

“Free Palestine,” Walsh said moments before she was handcuffed and taken into custody, eliciting cheers from her comrades in court.

The courtroom was packed with supporters, mostly young, White women, and the majority wearing Palestinian keffiyehs. The comrades cried, shouted support, and made heart shapes with their hands as each woman was taken away by deputies. 

Walsh, 20, and her fellow defendants — Sophie Ross, 23; Bridget Shergalis, 28; and Paige Belanger, 33 — were arrested following their attack on the Elbit facility, protesting the Israeli-owned defense company for providing weapons to Israel. 

The activists staged the attack on November 20, 2023, weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,300 Israelis and took hundreds of hostages on October 7.

Paige Belanger

All four entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and criminal mischief as part of a negotiated plea agreement. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, who personally oversaw the prosecution, originally charged the four activists with a series of felonies, including riot, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, burglary, and conspiracy to commit falsifying physical evidence. Each charge carries a potential three-and-a-half to seven-year prison sentence.

But in the end, Formella made a deal.

The sentence for each charge is 12 months in jail, but the women will each serve just 60 days under the agreement. The remainder of the jail time is deferred for six months. Along with community service and a pledge to not be charged with any new crimes, the women are under orders to pay Elbit a total of $95,000 to cover the damage they caused at the Merrimack facility on Daniel Webster Highway.

“The resolution reached with these defendants balances the needs of sentencing, as well as the goals of the New Hampshire Department of Justice and the victim, Elbit Systems of America, to ensure the defendants make Elbit America whole by paying restitution in full, completing community service within the community they disrupted, and by facing a significant period of incarceration,” according to a statement from the Attorney General’s Office.

“This resolution also serves the broader goal of deterrence and sends a clear message from law enforcement that criminal conduct aimed at disrupting businesses and communities will be vigorously investigated and prosecuted.”

Some Granite Staters expressed their disappointment that the anti-Israel activists — who broke windows, smashed skylights, damaged equipment, and forced a lockdown of the employees inside the building — will get a slap on the wrist.

Sophie Ross

“I think they got off too easy,” state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R-Merrimack) told NHJournal. “They terrorized the employees of Elbit. Can you imagine being in that building and not knowing the extent of what was happening outside? They padlocked the doors and were up on the roof doing who knows what?

“Terrorizing people should have a stiffer sentence than 60 days in jail,” Notter added.

There’s a good chance the incarcerated activists will get financial help from multi-millionaire and self-declared Communist James “Fergie” Chambers. The scion of the wealthy Cox family, Chambers operates a Marxist commune in Massachusetts, though he lives in the Granite State to take advantage of the state’s tax policies and strong Second Amendment protections.

While he likes low taxes and gun ownership, Chambers hates Israel.

“Israel does not deserve to exist,” Chambers told LA Magazine last year. “It is a false state propped up by the West.” 

Belanger listed herself as the secretary for the Berkshire Communists, the “revolutionary Marxist-Leninist collective” reportedly bankrolled by Chambers. 

The four women are all connected to Palestinian Action U.S., where Chambers is prominent. Chambers often pays bail for radical left-wing protestors, and made sure to front the cash bail for the women last year.

The FBI has an interest in Chambers, and seized Walsh’s cell phone after her arrest last year as part of an investigation into the wealthy Communist benefactor, according to court records.

Calla Walsh (right) and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

Walsh is a political star in her own right. She gained fame as a 16-year-old activist who helped push Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) to victory in a primary race against Joseph Kennedy III. More recently, she’s been fangirling online for the likes of Hamas and Iran’s repressive, authoritarian regime run by Islamic fundamentalists.

Walsh mourned the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack, going so far as to post an image of her presidential ballot with Sinwar’s name written in.

She also posted messages calling Israelis “the scum of nations and pigs of the Earth.”

Walsh still has a pending criminal case out of Cambridge, Mass. for her protest at the Elbit facility there.

Bridget Shergalis

Shergalis comes to the Marxist, anti-Israel movement via television. The former child actress had featured roles on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel productions, though she does not seem to have parlayed her minor fame into steady work as an adult.

State Sen.-elect Tim McGough (R-Merrimack) told NHJournal he supports the plea deal.

“This sentencing reinforces New Hampshire’s commitment to maintaining the rule of law and protecting our community from destructive behavior,” McGough said.

“It’s clear the negotiated plea deal likely considered the toll these repeated trials would have taken on Elbit Systems’ employees and the significant cost four separate trials would have imposed on the State of New Hampshire. Valley Street Jail is not a fun place to spend the upcoming holidays, and these criminals are in for a rude awakening. This sentencing sends a strong message: our community stands against violence, and those who disrupt our peace will face serious consequences.”

Two of the three protesters indicted in the anti-Israel vandalism at Elbit Systems in Merrimack last November signaled Thursday they won’t be cooperating with prosecutors. 

Left-wing activists Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis, and Calla Walsh were in Hillsborough Superior Court — South for arraignment on felony charges of riot, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, burglary, and conspiracy to commit falsifying physical evidence for their roles in the November protest.

United at their arrests, the three women took different paths in court. Walsh, 19, did not speak, did not approach the defense table, and attorney Jeffrey Odland with the Manchester law firm of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters waived the reading of her charges in open court. 

Walsh was surrounded in court by family members and friends, while Ross, 22, and Shergalis, 27, were mostly on their own.

Ross and Shergalis are being represented by activist attorney Kira Kelley with Minneapolis-based Climate Defense Project, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to “resistance efforts.”

“Kira (they/she) grew up in rural Vermont as a guest on unceded Abenaki lands, with a lot of strong opinions but minimal political analysis about social injustice,” according to the organization’s website.

Bridget Shergalis (right) and Sophie Ross with their attorney Kira Kelley (standing) in Hillsborough Superior court, February 29, 2024.

Kelley pushed back Thursday on an attempt by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to prevent her from representing both clients in the same case. Prosecutors argued dual representation for the same crime creates a potential conflict of interest for the defense. 

But Kelley told Judge Tina Nadeau that prosecutors are more concerned with getting an edge on the defendants than protecting their constitutional rights to a vigorous defense. Dividing the two defendants would make it easier for the state to play them against each other, she argued.

“The main concern here, the state’s objective, is getting the co-defendants to testify against each other. My clients recognize it is in both of their best interests not to cooperate,” Kelley said.

But Judge Nadeau shared the state’s concern, especially given Ross and Shergalis are being advised to stay united by the same attorney. Not only does Kelley run the risk of being disciplined for violating ethical rules for her potential conflict of interest, but her dual representation could provide Ross and Shegalis an easy appeal on the grounds they had “ineffective assistance of counsel,” Nadeau said.

“I find it odd and curious that a lawyer would take the position you’re taking in this case. I want to be frank with you; I’m concerned,” Nadeau said.

Nadeau will appoint two attorneys for both Ross and Shergalis to impartially advise them about the case and determine if they wish to proceed with Kelley as their sole attorney.

Kelley is also representing two Dartmouth students charged with criminal trespass last October after they pitched a tent on campus and refused to leave. They were protesting Israel’s actions in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack.

All three defendants in the Elbit case are due back in court next month for a dispositional conference. The state has presented the three with plea agreements that could keep the cases from going to trial. Nadeau advised the women to seek an alternative to trial.

The case of a fourth suspect, Paige Blender, 32, is expected to end up in the Nashua court in the coming weeks. Belanger was arrested on a warrant last month, though she has yet to be indicted by a grand jury. Grand jury proceedings are secret, but Nadeau said in court she anticipates getting the case soon.

Walsh first came to prominence as a leader in the “MarkeyVerse,” a group of progressive teens who took to social media on behalf of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. 

She was also part of the Mapping Project, which published a map of Jewish businesses and people, including locations of Jewish daycares and schools. It has been denounced as antisemitic and dangerous. She was arrested last year during a protest at the Elbit Systems location in Cambridge, Mass., along with Ross.

Shergalis is a former child actress with credits on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows.