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Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.05.2007
A Catholic priest and one of two women arrested on trespassing charges at Fort Huachuca last month were jailed Tuesday after a Tucson court hearing.
U.S. Magistrate Jacqueline Marshall said that because of their histories of arrest, Franciscan priest Jerome Zawada, 70, of Las Vegas, and Frances Elizabeth Lamb, 69, of Bend, Ore., would be locked up at least until Thursday.
A detention hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. that day.
Mary Burton Riseley, 65, arrested at the same time as Lamb and Zawada, was released on the condition that she not go within 500 feet of Fort Huachuca. Her next court date is in January.
On Nov. 18, Zawada, Lamb and Riseley were arrested while protesting military-intelligence interrogation training at the fort, about 75 miles southeast of Tucson.
Military officials said the trio wanted to be arrested and trespassed on the post despite warnings.
Prosecutor Capt. Evan Seamone cited pending charges in Oregon against Lamb as a reason for locking her up. Lamb is accused of blocking traffic in Bend while protesting the Iraq war. Seamone said Lamb also has a history of trespassing at Fort Benning, Ga., where she protested the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, once called The School of the Americas.
Zawada also has a history of civil disobedience. Seamone said the priest has had numerous arrests over the past three decades and previously served time behind bars.
The three, who say they are acting on social conscience, knelt in prayer when military officials stopped them at Fort Huachuca. Riseley is a Quaker and Lamb is Catholic.
They contend the military-intelligence interrogation training at the fort leads military personnel to engage in torture, an accusation the Army denies.
"The three defendants were called by their conscience to speak out against torture," supporter Jack Cohen-Joppa said after the hearing. "Although they do not desire to spend time in prison, they feel that it is a necessary risk to try to stop brutal and inhumane treatment of detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan."
The trio's arrest last month was nearly identical to a scenario at the Sierra Vista Army post last year.
On Nov. 19, 2006, two Catholic priests — the Rev. Louis J. Vitale, 74, and the Rev. Steve Kelly , 58 — were also arrested for trespassing. In October, the priests pleaded no contest to trespassing. They are serving five-month sentences in federal prison.
● Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com.
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