JUDGE GIVES 13 IN ANTI-SOA GROUP JAIL TIME by Jim Houston
Thirteen men and women who protested the School of the Americas by
trespassing on Fort Benning were sentenced to federal prison Monday
by U.S. District Court Judge J. Robert Elliott, but not before they
made repeated pleas for the nation to close the school.
The protesters, including three Catholic priests and a nun, admitted
trespassing during November 1994 and 1995 protests as part of a
campaign to shut down the school that moved to Columbus from Panama
in 1980. The school, funded by Congress, trains soldiers from Latin
American nations, including some graduates who have participated in
massacres and "death squads", the protesters said.
The Rev. Roy Bourgeois of Lucher, La., a Maryknoll priest and founder
of the School of the Americas Watch, was sentenced to the maximum
six-month prison sentence for his third conviction before Elliott.
Two others previously warned not to trespass on Fort Benning were
sentenced to four months in prison, with the rest sentenced in two
months.
"The fact that a person has a lofty motive doesn't excuse the
criminal activity," said Elliott, "I have no doubt that each one of
you....thought you were doing the right thing. You're not bveing
sentenced because you have good intentions, lofty motives....you've
being sentenced because you violated the law with intent to do so."
Bourgeois organizes annual protests at Fort Benning on November 16 to
mark the slaying of six priests and two women in El Salvador,
allegedly by soldiers trained at the School of the AmericaS. He said
prison will be hard, but it won't stop the protets.
".........If prison will help close the doors of the School of the
Americas, we go," he said. "We want this school closed because this
is a school of thugs, a school of terrorists that brings shame on
this country....on Columbus, Georgia, and.....on Fort Benning and our
armed forces.
"That school will eventually close, and we will keep coming back
until it does," said Bourgeois, who was sentenced in 1991 to 16
months in prison for splashing blood inside the school during a 1990
protest.
U.S. Army Major Gordon Martel, spokesman for the School of the
Americas, said after the trial that the attention drawn by the
protesters will not stop the training of military leaders from Latin
American countries in the ways of democracy. "Our mission won't
change at all," he said.
"Anyone who leaves here and commits atrocities does so in spite of
the School of the Americas, not because of it," said Martel.
Elliott originally sentenced an Ursuline nun and a mother of eight to
three years on probation, but the two persuaded him to change the
sentence to two months in prison.
"I've always been a pushover for women...so I'll do what you ask me
to do," he said, giving Sister Claire O'Mara, 74, of New Rochelle, NY
and JoAnne Lingle, 59, of Indianapolis, the same obligation as each
of the 13 to report directly tp prison when notified by the probation
office.
The Rev. William J. Bichsel, 67, of Tacoma, Wash. who was sentenced
to four months in prison, drew prolonged applause from the packed
federal courtroom when he he told Elliott, "We will be back year
after year after year, and my prayer is that one day you'll join us."
Louis De Benedette, 52, a Vietnam veteran from Uncasville, Ct., also
promised to return again and again despite his four-month prison
sentence.
Others sentenced to two months in prison included: Joseph Zito,
25, of Albany, Ga; Will Prior, 66, of Las Cruces, N.M.; the Rev.
Frederick Mercy, 61, of Spokane, Wash; John Linnehan, 68, of
Jacksonville, Fla; Ray Laport, 77 of Erie, Pa; Ed Kinane, 52, of
Syracuse, NY; Robert Holstein, Jr., 54, of Riverside, Calif; and
William Corrigan, 75, of Marietta, Ga.
Attorneys Peter Thompson of Minneapolis and David Grindle of Columbus
argued the post's ban against partisan political activity is applied
only to anti-School of the Americas groups. Military officers, U.S.
congressmen, local citizens, and groups that support the school are
allowed to attend and even speak at school functions without being
charged, they argued.
Grindle said he expects the 13 to appeal, despite their admissions of
guilt, based on unequal application of the regulation by Fort Benning
officials.
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