50 Cited for Trespassing as Protests at Nevada Weapons Test Center End

Fifty anti-nuclear demonstrators were cited for trespassing Sunday at the end of 10 days of protests at the entrance to the nation’s nuclear weapons testing center, the Department of Energy said.

Officials of the American Peace Test, which organized the 10-day protest, said more than 2,000 people were arrested for civil disobedience during the event to “reclaim the test site” 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Energy Department spokeswoman Barbara Yoerg said 50 of about 650 people at Sunday’s demonstration were cited for misdemeanor trespassing and taken to Tonopah, the Nye County seat, where they were released.

The Nye County district attorney’s office last year stopped prosecuting people who walk across the boundary at the test site as a political statement because the cases were clogging the rural county’s court system.

American Peace Test organizers said the number of civil disobedience arrests during the 10 days set a U.S. record for organized protests, although numbers arrested during spontaneous demonstrations have been higher.

Authorities said the arrest totals were misleading because many people were arrested several times and released the same day without prosecution.

Several dozen protesters infiltrated far inside the test site, but Yoerg said most of the infiltrators were treated as simple trespassers and released.

Several men and women demonstrators also were cited for public nudity after disrobing near the test site entrance during the week.

Several celebrities were arrested during the largest day of demonstrations, March 12, including peace activist Daniel Ellsburg, actresses Teri Garr and Shirley Knight, actor Robert Blake, radio and television personality Casey Kasem and the Rev. William Sloan Coffin.