Costa Mesa : 3 More Held in Protest of Defense Convention

Three more demonstrators were arrested Friday morning at a Costa Mesa hotel for protesting the annual meeting of military and defense industry representatives, bringing to 47 the number of people arrested during the three-day conference.

Costa Mesa police Friday arrested Kathleen Colburn, 30, Emily Stewart, 19, and Meredith Males, 38, all of Los Angeles, in the lobby of the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel shortly before the 26th Annual Winter Convention on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (WINCON) started its final session.

All three declined to be released on their own recognizance, said Tim Carpenter, head of the Alliance for Survival, the anti-nuclear group that coordinated the weeklong protests at the hotel. They remained at the Orange County Jail.

Carpenter said the peaceful demonstrations, which began Tuesday night when 1,400 people surrounded the plush hotel during a two-hour vigil, drew much more public support than last year, when the group staged similar protests against WINCON.