JMU student, 3 alumni sentenced in July trial

PHOTO COURTESY OF richmondindymedia.org A group holds crosses as they protest the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga. in November 2001. Four Harrisonburg residents were sentenced in July court preceedings.

Following a "peaceful demonstration" in Georgia last year, rising junior Peter Gelderloos and three JMU alumni were found guilty of trespassing on a U.S. Army base.

Gelderloos is now serving the maximum sentence – six months – in a county jail before being sent to a federal prison. Gelderloos, Abi Miller ('00), Lee Sturgis ('97) and her husband David O'Neill ('96) were sentenced in Columbus, Ga., where they were arrested Nov. 18 while trespassing on the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning, Ga., during a demonstration against the School of the Americas.

Serving as his own lawyer, Gelderloos pled not guilty, and is currently serving in Muskegee County Jail in Columbus, Ga.

O'Neill and Sturgis both pled guilty with lawyers and received six months probation and a $500 fine.

Miller, who pled not guilty and didn't have a lawyer either, is now serving a three-month prison sentence and was fined $500.

The group believes the School of the Americas, trains Latin American terrorists and was protesting the school when they were arrested, according to the SOAW Web site (www.soaw.org).

According to a Dec. 6, 2001 Breeze article, the group was participating in a vigil organized by the SOAW. During the weekend of Nov. 17 and 18, over 7,000 people protested at the WHISC in attempts to have it close.

Those arrested participate in a group called the School of the Americans Watch, who, according to the SOAW Web site (www.soaw.org), "is an independent organization that seeks to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work."

SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in January 2001 after a recent investigation regarding appropriate training tactics, according to O'Neill in a November interview.with The Breeze.

Gelderloos, Miller, Sturgis, O'Neill and NINE other protestors, holding hands, proceeded onto the base in demonstration while SOA Watch's indictment – a statement of specific accusations against the school – was read to the thousands at the vigil over a loudspeaker. The 13 protesters were arrested on the base.