RAYTHEON/TUCSON:

Following a two-hour bench trial in Pima County Justice Court on May 17, Patricia Birnie, Jack Cohen-Joppa, and Betty Schroeder were found guilty of trespass at Raytheon Corporation's Tucson missile plant. The trio was arrested last January 17, Martin Luther King Day, as they persistently sought a meeting with senior management about the Tucson plant's production of weapons enabling U.S. war crimes and treaty violations, such as Tomahawk cruise missiles and kinetic energy missile interceptors. The three refused to pay a $100 fine and were sentenced to 15 hours community service instead...

PRINCE OF PEACE PLOWSHARES:

Mark Colville, whose continuing war resistance recently placed him at risk of probation violation and more jail time for the 1997 disarmament action, has received a letter from sentencing Federal Judge Carter to prosecutors, discharging the case. Carter wrote: "The Court CONCLUDES that there is no rationally justifiable goal to be achieved by a revocation of Defendant's now-expired term of Supervised Release and imposition of a modest additional term of incarceration. The Court's long exposure to this case, and to this Defendant particularly, convinces the Court that there is no basis for hope that such a regime of additional punishment will lead Defendant to comply with any of the conditions of his term of Supervised Release... He has shown a thoroughly intransigent attitude toward every aspect of this prosecution, and the Court has every reason to expect that he will continue to do so. He is a political activist and a theologically grounded ideologue of the most intractable kind. This Court is fully persuaded Defendant will not be dissuaded from committing further criminal acts in pursuit of his politico-religious agenda by a minimal term of imprisonment at this time. If Defendant commits further such acts, he should be prosecuted and punished severely for them. Nor will Defendant's imprisonment serve any purpose of general deterrence with others of his social-action coterie who may be similarly inclined to political protest through criminal conduct"...

JUBILEE PLOWSHARES:

Michele Naar-Obed was released from federal prison on June 21, and returned to her home and family at Jonah House in Baltimore, free at last from probation and its restrictions that led to exile from Jonah House. Naar-Obed was originally sent to prison for the Jubilee Plowshares/East disarmament action of August 6, 1995, and last year violated probation by returning to live at Jonah House with known peace felons, resulting in an additional year behind bars

... PLOWSHARES vs. DEPLETED URANIUM:

While Phil Berrigan, Susan Crane, Steve Kelly, and Liz Walz have settled into prison routines, more or less (prison addresses, Inside and Out), life for an expert witness at their trial has been anything but routine. Since Dr. Doug Rokke was forbidden by the judge to testify about the radioactive weapon, despite his extensive experience, he has been fired from his teaching post at Jacksonville State University in Alabama and had his home twice burgled by thieves in search of files and computer records. On the second occasion, Rokke arrived home with a TV crew in tow for an interview, and surprised the burglars who fled out the back of the house. Police investigators said the thieves were professionals who left little evidence. Rokke chalks it all up to standard intimidation tactics, and is unbowed in his determination to continue advocacy for victims of depleted uranium weapons...

PENTAGON:

Felton Davis and Peter DeMott faced an Alexandria, Virginia, federal magistrate in April on a charge of probation violation with their arrest last August. A judgment has yet to be issued, although final oral arguments were heard in May...

ELECTRIC BOAT:

Correction: Two people reported to have pled no contest the day after a January resistance action at the Connecticut submarine builder were first sentenced in part to pay a $200 fine, which they refused, resulting in a sentence of 120 hours community service plus six months jail, suspended, and probation...

ALEXANDER NIKITIN:

On April 17, the Russian Supreme Court affirmed the St. Petersburg City Court acquittal of Alexander Nikitin, the former navy officer and environmental researcher charged with espionage. This should spell the end of his four year-plus prosecution on charges resulting from published reports based on his examination of public documents about Russia's nuclear navy pollution...

ANN ARBOR POST OFFICE:

Jim Lupton was finally sentenced last May to 3 months probation, $125 fine and 37 hours community service, following his December, 1999 conviction for leafletting at the post office in December, 1998, when the still-going campaign of bombing Iraq began...

U.S. MISSION TO THE U.N.:

All 86 arrestees' charges from the February 14 action to end the sanctions against Iraq have been dismissed...

YORKTOWN NAVAL WEAPONS STATION:

Steve Baggarly and Bill Frankel-Streit appeared before Federal Magistrate Bradbury in Newport News, Virginia, on May 24, for trial on charges of trespass last Ash Wednesday. Baggarly opened for the defense with a plea for the children, and was interrupted by the magistrate, who told him "I'm one of the good guys, but I'm not going to have any political propaganda in the courtroom," and then permitted only minimal opening statements. The prosecutor brought the arresting officers to the stand, and the judge affirmed from their testimony that the defendants behaved nonviolently. When Baggarly testified about government silence on the issue of nuclear weapons storage at Yorktown, Bradbury again interrupted to stop that line. "What I see is that you feel real strongly about the nuclear weapons, so strongly that you had to climb the fence, am I right?" he asked. The two men agreed and the judge replied, "There's not much more to say about it, then..." Closing statements were permitted, but the judge implored, "Keep it brief - we know how you feel." After their brief statements, the prosecutor moved for dismissal, "so we don't have to hear any more of this." The judge said he hoped the men would spend their lives protesting, but choose targets that don't cause them to end up in his courtroom. He then dismissed the charge...