How do you keep a peace activist from breaking the law if she embraces the standard penalty: community service? That was the challenge facing assistant U.S. attorney Bud Fitzgerald in federal court on Thursday afternoon.
Eugene peace activist Peg Morton — a 77-year-old Quaker who has been arrested at least seven times since 1989 — was one of four protesters who refused to leave Sen. Gordon Smith’s office on Oct. 12. They targeted Smith because of their concern about his vote for funding the war in Iraq. They were cited for failing to comply with lawful directions and escorted from the Wayne L. Morse U.S Courthouse, the new federal building.
Contending with the other three protesters was simple enough. Judge Tom Coffin agreed to the deal proposed by Fitzgerald and defense attorney Lauren Regan in a courtroom filled with about 25 spectators, most of them Quakers.
Eugene doctor Paul Qualtere-Burcher, former special education teacher Lisette Ewing and nurse practitioner Laurie Knackstedt were first-time offenders and agreed not to contest the charges, and complete 20 hours of community service within the year with the promise that the cases against them would be dismissed.
But the U.S. attorney’s office had already done this dance with Morton when she protested the Iraq war by refusing to leave Rep. Peter DeFazio’s Eugene office last winter. She’d been ordered to do 20 hours of community service and told not to re-offend.
Morton completed 37 hours of community service, but she couldn’t keep herself from another act of civil disobedience.
What’s a prosecutor to do?
“Ms. Morton gladly gives community service on her own,” Fitzgerald said. “The government doesn’t see that as much of a deterrent.”
Punishment for the Class C misdemeanor tops out at a one-year jail sentence and $5,000 fine. But that seemed a little extreme for protesters who were on such good terms with the officer who cited them, Inspector T.C. Keedy, that he didn’t bother handcuffing them when he escorted them from the building in October.
The government finally settled on a $100 fine for Morton’s first offense, payable within four months, and another $100 fine for the second offense, suspended if Morton keeps from re-offending for the next 12 months.
At first, Morton balked at paying the government a fine.
“It troubles me that while I receive a consequence for disobeying the law, others who brought us into an illegal war have suffered no consequences,” Morton said in statement to the judge. “I find myself unwilling to voluntarily pay into a department that condones torture and Guantanamo.”
Fitzgerald and Morton’s attorney Regan said they believed the money would go into a fund directed toward victims rather than into the federal government’s general fund, and Morton agreed to pay.
As to whether she’ll commit another act of civil disobedience, she wouldn’t entirely rule it out, although she has no current plans.
Morton said she takes action when the spirit moves her.
“We can’t ever know whether we’re going to be effective. We can only act,” she said.
Poster Comment:
Peg is a good friend of mine. I doubt if she is going to retire just because of this. ;-)