ST. JOSEPH -- Trespass is trespass, no matter how noble the cause might be, a judge told a group of demonstrators who were arrested after crossing a police line during a protest at Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant last August.
That was the basis of Berrien County Trial Court Judge Angela Pasula finding the nine defendants guilty of criminal trespass and fining them $160 each after a one-day bench trial Tuesday.
Pasula agreed with Deputy Prosecutor Jennifer Smith that they willfully entered a designated off-limits area near the plant entrance and refused to leave when told they would be arrested.
As part of her case, Smith played a videotape in which plant Security Supervisor Herbert Torberg Jr. advised the demonstrators to leave the secure area or face arrest, and county police Lt. Keith Hafer issued a second warning to each protester before the arrests were made.
In all, 12 people were arrested at the Aug. 24 protest. Two defendants already pleaded guilty to trespass charges and a third failed to appear in court Tuesday. A bench warrant was issued for him.
The protest was sandwiched between the restarts of Cook's two reactors after a safety-related shutdown at the Bridgman plant in September 1997.
About 100 people attended the protest, which was held in a designated plant-owned strip of land off Red Arrow Highway.
Those who were arrested separated themselves from the rest as the end of the protest neared, locked arms and entered the off-limits area where police were waiting.
The trial's outcome was pretty much decided after Pasula made a pretrial ruling that the defendants could not use a "necessity defense," or argue that civil disobedience was necessary because the plant had operated with degraded safety systems prior to the shutdown.
Last year, following trespassing arrests at a 1999 rally, some of the same defendants pleaded guilty after Judge Wilbur Schillinger also limited their defense arguments.
But they pressed ahead and each took the witness stand, sprinkling in frequent remarks about how they believed Cook still poses a threat to the region's well-being.
That drew at least five objections from Smith about the relevance to the trespass charges.
The defendants also took advantage of Pasula's offer to speak before sentencing by issuing strong anti-nuclear testimonials and promising to continue protesting.
"It was an act of conscience and I had to do it," said Michael Mariotte of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Evanston, Ill., summing up the others' reasons.
Bill Schalk, a Cook spokesman who attended the trial, said afterward that plant officials got no joy from the arrests and convictions, but must take steps to protect the plant and surrounding grounds.
"They have pretty strong beliefs," Schalk said of the demonstrators, "and we have some pretty strong beliefs, too."
The Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, a utility ratepayer advocacy group, was well represented with Executive Director Chris Williams, local organizer Naomi Butorac and canvassers Laura Campbell, Pam Pronio and Kari Uhle among those who were arrested.
Roger Voelker, the CAC's South Bend-based organizer, testified on their behalf.
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