[NYTr] Catholic Protestors at Oak Ridge Weapons Plant Sentenced

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell (with no URL)
AP - Aug 8, 2007

Weapons Plant Protesters Sentenced

By Associated Press

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. --- A 70-year-old Roman Catholic nun who was arrested 
during a demonstration at a nuclear weapons site on the 62nd
anniversary of Hiroshima has been sentenced to 20 days in jail.

Elizabeth Ann Lentsch, of Oak Ridge, also known as Sister Mary Dennis 
Lentsch, was convicted of obstructing a roadway in front of the Y-12 
nuclear weapons plant on Saturday, culminating a demonstration by about 
200 peace activists.

Most of the work to build the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima was 
performed at the plant.

Lentsch was sentenced Tuesday following a minutes-long bench trial 
before Anderson County General Sessions Judge Ron Murch.

Lentsch has served two stints in federal prison in Lexington, Ky., for 
acts of civil disobedience. She spent two months there for trespassing 
at the Y-12 plant in 2002 and six months last year for trespassing at 
Fort Benning, Ga.

Four other demonstrators arrested Saturday pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor citations. Three were fined $25 as first-time offenders and
given suspended 30-day jail sentences.

The fourth, Elizabeth V. Brockman, 44, of Durham, N.C., admitted she'd 
been previously convicted of a similar offense. She was sentenced to 
five days in jail and given credit for the three days she's been locked 
up since her arrest.