03/11/2000
By Eileen Zaffiro
Staff Writer
About 50 people clustered in front of Columbus' federal courthouse Friday morning, singing of justice to the strums of a lone guitar and praying over flickering candles that challenged heavy clouds.
It was an atypical preview to a criminal trial that proved to be anything but typical. The defendants included a nun, retired ministers, missionaries, veterans, grandfathers and other multilingual pacifists with more college degrees than criminal convictions among them.
The nine people who went before U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson on charges of trespassing Nov. 21 at Fort Benning not only admitted they defied orders to stay off the military post, they also took turns detailing the events of their lives that spurred them to seek arrest and prosecution for doing so.
After a three-hour hearing, they were all found guilty of the misdemeanor trespassing charges, and now face a maximum of six months in federal prison and a $5,000 fine. They will be sentenced within the next month or two, after an investigation into their backgrounds is completed.
Judy Bierbaum, a 43-year-old children's sexual abuse therapist from New Mexico, said she "deeply grieves" her lack of action in the early 1990s when she began volunteer work in Third World countries.
By the late 1990s, when she began participating in the annual protest of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, "It was no longer sufficient to write letters and talk to my congressmen," Bierbaum said.
"I came alive the day I crossed the line for the first time," Bierbaum said, describing the white death mask and black shroud she wore as she and dozens of other protesters marched onto Fort Benning property, carrying mock caskets and dousing themselves in red paint symbolizing blood.
"It was the first time my actions matched my beliefs," Bierbaum said.
After filling out paperwork and getting photographed and fingerprinted, Bierbaum and the other protesters who hail from across the country were free to return to their home states.
A 10th man who is also charged with trespassing during the November protest as well as another protest at the School of the Americas Dec. 12 will have a non-jury trial before Lawson Monday.
The 10 were charged the day an estimated 12,000 people rallied to protest the continued operation of the School of the Americas. A few months after the 1997 SOA protest, those on trial had all received letters ordering them not to step foot on Fort Benning again for at least five years.
All are members of School of the Americas Watch, founded in 1990 by a priest appalled by the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador that some believe was carried out by graduates of the School of the Americas.
Group members, 45 who have already served prison terms, vow to fight until the school is closed. They say Friday's trial is fuel for their cause, not a deterrent.
SOA Watch members say their protests are going to increase in frequency, with the goal of holding monthly vigils.
"It'd be my honor to come back," said Cliff Willmeng, a Chicago resident who had trespassing charges against him for the November protest dropped earlier this year. "We need to keep up the pressure and keep it on peoples' minds."
As court proceedings were wrapping up Friday afternoon, a half-dozen people planted crosses and dug holes in the lawn of the School of the Americas, a Fort Benning spokesman said. The six, all who live outside Georgia, were apprehended by military police and will be charged with criminal trespass, destruction of government property and disorderly conduct.
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None of the defendants characterized their actions as illegal. They said the irony was that some SOA graduates were not the ones on trial. "There is a higher law of God," said the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch. "Rosa Parks broke the law, but most people of faith agree she followed a higher law." "I feel I'd be disobedient if I failed to speak for the people of Latin America," said Margaret Knapke, a 47-year-old therapist from Dayton, Ohio, who has worked with war-traumatized people from El Salvador. "The system works slowly and people are dying, so it's important to speak out with the loudest voice possible." Those on trial said they just wanted to be heard, and will take the consequences. The defendants' stories were heard Friday only by fellow SOA Watch members, family and friends gathered in court. But their words will not get lost in courthouse files, Bourgeois said. He plans to publish their testimony in a booklet that will be distributed at colleges, churches and elsewhere as educational material. "It's very important for them to verbalize these things and to get that testimony out," Bourgeois said. "They'll speak from prison through media interviews and letters. The truth cannot be silenced." |
SOA PROTESTERS CONVICTED The following people were all convicted Friday of trespassing on Fort Benning during a protest Nov. 21 at the School of the Americas. -- Brooks Anderson, 66, retired Lutheran pastor, participated in Selma to Montgomery civil rights march, married, four children, nine grandchildren, Duluth, Minn. -- Judy Bierbaum, 43, children's sexual abuse therapist, Catholic, Children's Champion Award in 1997, Governor's Outstanding Women of New Mexico Award in 1998, Albuquerque, N.M. -- Thomas Bottolene, 50, full-time multi-issue activist for peace and justice, father of four, organizer, graphic artist, St. Paul, Minn. -- Charles Butler, 73, retired United Methodist minister, missionary in Panama for 25 years, Army veteran stationed at Fort Benning, married, three children, Rochester, Minn. -- Kathleen Fisher, environmental chemist, Quaker, worked four years in Zimbabwe and Swaziland for Mennonite Central Committee, on staff of U.S. Grail, a women's social justice and environmental nonprofit group, Portland, Ore. -- Gerhard Fischer, 71, retired pharmacist/businessman, U.S. Navy veteran of Korean conflict, Lutheran, married, five daughters, nine grandchildren, Brookfield, Wis. -- John Honeck, 39, residence counselor for mentally retarded adults, tutor, Catholic, married, three children, Hamlin, N.Y. -- Margaret Knapke, 47, natural therapeutics practitioner, worked with war-traumatized people from El Salvador, master of philosophy, Dayton, Ohio. -- Sister Megan Rice, 70, Catholic Sister of the Holy Child Jesus, 34 years in Nigeria and Ghana, served six months in federal prison for previous SOA protest, Baltimore. |
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