Nuclear Arms Protester Sentenced to Jail

A nuclear arms protester was sentenced to five days in jail by an Orange County judge Friday when she refused to promise she would not become involved in civil disobedience for a year.

Marion Pack, 39, of Norco was one of 10 people found guilty Tuesday of a misdemeanor for blocking a public roadway during a demonstration at the Winter Conference of Aerospace and Electronic Systems (Wincon) in Costa Mesa last February.

Pack, executive director of the Alliance for Survival, an anti-nuclear group, was surrounded by more than a dozen supporters when she went to Harbor Court for her sentencing Friday.

The other nine protesters had been sentenced earlier in the week by Judge Christopher W. Strople to one year of probation and 40 hours of community service. They agreed also not to go inside the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel, where they were arrested, during their probation.

The Alliance for Survival has been holding weekly vigils in front of the hotel, and Pack joined about 40 other protesters Friday night standing on the sidewalk in a light rain at Bristol Street and Anton Boulevard. She said the jail sentence will not interfere with her plans to protest this year’s conference in a candlelight vigil Feb. 25.

Pack told the judge Friday that she had no problem with the order to stay out of the hotel or with the 40 hours of community service. In fact, she offered to do 80 hours of service.

But she would not guarantee to be law-abiding for one year in return for probation.

“Social justice does not come easy,” Pack told the judge. “I can’t put this issue on hold for one year.”

Pack said an anti-nuclear arms demonstration might take place at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County in July, and she did not want to be shackled by a court order if she decided then to be involved in civil disobedience.

Cites Examples

“I could not imagine Martin Luther King Jr. saying he would put civil rights on hold for one year . . . or our ancestors during the American Revolution saying they would put the Boston Tea Party off for one year,” Pack told the judge.

Pack said she would agree to a probation of up to 60 days. That would preclude her from any illegal demonstrations when the same aerospace conference returns to the Westin hotel on Feb. 26.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly W. MacEachern argued that Pack “has no right to dictate to the court what her punishment will be.” MacEachern asked for a jail sentence, but did not specify its length.

Judge Strople offered Pack some compromises to avoid sending her to jail.

- Would she accept the one-year probation if he limited the ban on civil disobedience to Orange County.

No, she said, adding that there might be other anti-nuclear activities in Orange County that would require an act of civil disobedience by her.

- Would she pay a $500 fine?

No, she said, explaining it would be a hardship on her husband and three children.

Weekends at Honor Farm

Strople said he would not budge on the length of the probation. He sentenced her to five days in jail but allowed her to serve it over two weekends, beginning next Friday. Most women serving weekends in jail are sent to the James A. Musick Honor Farm near El Toro.

The jail sentence means she will be under no probation restrictions at all once her time is served.

Pack said later she considered the judge fair.

“I know civil disobedience is not the only way to get your point across, but I just don’t want that option closed to me,” she said.

Elizabeth Crawford of Santa Ana, one of those who had been found guilty and accepted probation, said she was proud of Pack.

“What she did took a lot of courage,” Crawford said.

At last February’s Wincon session, 44 people were arrested. The group had blocked the delegates’ path to buses that were to take them to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station for the conference.

All but 11 pleaded no contest last year and were given probation and community service hours.

The rest promoted their cause under the name “The Wincon 11.” They became the Wincon 10 when one of them, M. Bradley Cooper, 27, of Santa Ana failed to show up for the trial. His family has filed a missing person report on him.