LISBON - The Hanoverton man charged with abduction for taking a drilling employee he found on his property to the sheriff's department is now the defendant in a civil case filed this week by TGS-Nopec Geophysical Co. and Chesapeake Exploration LLC.
TGS-Nopec, a seismic survey company, and Chesapeake Exploration, the company with the biggest percentage of gas and oil leases, filed a motion for an injunction requesting the right to begin testing on the property belonging to David and June Bernet, U.S. Route 30, Hanoverton.
The gas leases involving the Bernet's properties are allegedly subject to oil and gas leases from 1985, 2010 and 2009.
Besides the injunction, the lawsuit also requests an excess of $25,000 in damages.
The lawsuit further states that in two other similar cases the courts gave an injunction to the companies to drilling. Those two similar cases involve Golden H. Acres and James and Janet Zimmerman. Visiting Judge Richard Reinbold Jr. ruled in favor of a TGS-Nopec and Chesapeake's request for an injunction, but also ruled TGS-Nopec had to provide $50,000 in security for the two cases combined.
In a different twist on this case from others, David Bernet is currently facing an abduction charge and is scheduled for a July 3 preliminary hearing in Columbiana County Municipal Court. Court documents allege he forced at gunpoint, a man involved in local drilling business, to go onto the ground. Bernet reportedly searched him and then ordered him into his pickup. Bernet, 54, then reportedly drove the man to the sheriff's department to accuse him of trespassing.
