Ruling Cripples Arms Protesters’ Defense

Wearing a lapel pin reading “I was arrested for peace,” a Garden Grove man testified Tuesday that he helped blockade the gate to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in January to “stave off the escalation and the presence of nuclear weapons.”

The testimony came in the trial of six people facing misdemeanor charges for obstructing a roadway in connection with a peace group’s protest outside the Marine Corps station Jan. 31. The defendants had hoped to persuade the jury that they were obligated by moral and security concerns to block access to a military conference.

But despite the testimony by defendant Richard Rose, made out of the presence of the Superior Court jury hearing the case, Municipal Judge Randall L. Wilkinson decided that the intentions of defendants were irrelevant to the issue before the court.

Reaffirming an earlier ruling, Wilkinson refused to allow the six nuclear arms protesters to offer a “defense of necessity.”

Only Day of Trial

As a result, testimony by sheriff’s deputies on the first and only day of trial Tuesday was quick and to the point, centering on actions that were widely reported by the media at the time, captured on videotape, and admitted by the defendants themselves.

It is only the second time since the Orange County protests began in 1983 that activists have actually gone to trial, rather than reaching a plea agreement.

With evidence completed late Tuesday, the jury is expected to get the case today. If convicted, each of the defendants could face six months in jail or a $500 fine.

Without an opportunity to offer the reasons behind the protest, the defendants said their chances for acquittal appear dim.

“It seems like a pretty cut-and-dried case. I can’t see how the jury would let us off unless they want to make a statement of their own” on nuclear affairs, said protester Dan Farrell, 47, of Huntington Beach.

In all, 25 people were arrested at the gates of the El Toro Marine base after they tried to block delegates to the Winter Convention of Aerospace and Electronic Systems, or Wincon, from entering the facility.

Held for the last seven years in Orange County, the conference gathers military industry specialists from the public and private sectors for several days of classified discussions on defense issues.

Candlelight Vigils

And each year, several hundred activists have turned out at protests and candlelight vigils in connection with the conference to voice their concerns about the Strategic Defense Initiative, or “Star Wars,” and other weaponry they believe threaten the world’s population. The conference was not held in 1988 because of what protest organizers believe was negative publicity the previous year surrounding the protests.

Most of the 25 arrested at this year’s protest reached agreements with the district attorney’s office to enter guilty or no-contest pleas and perform community service, according to officials with Alliance for Survival, the group that organized the protest.

But the six defendants in the current trial decided to try to win their case in court in the hope they could justify their actions through “higher moral considerations,” said defense attorney Robert Weinberg.

In addition to Rose and Ferrell, also standing trial are Dorothy Callison of Fullerton, Len Ewers and Sasha Karlik of Santa Ana and Patrick Yrarrazaval-Correa of Tustin.