Judge recommends against dismissing Y-12 protester charges, says weapons work not a war crime

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above allegedly cut through fences and vandalized a high-security building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and now face federal charges of property destruction, property depredation, and injuring national defense premises. From left to right the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (Submitted photo)

The charges against three protesters accused of breaking into the Y-12 National Security in July should not be dismissed, a federal judge recommended Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge C. Clifford Shirley Jr. said the three anti-nuclear weapons activists—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—have argued that the charges must be dismissed because the production, processing, and storage of nuclear weapons at Y-12 is illegal under United States and international law.

The defendants also contend that the production and continuing threat of the use of nuclear weapons is a war crime and violates international law, Shirley said in a 20-page report and recommendation filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Wednesday.

“The defendants assert that their nonviolent actions to expose and disarm symbolically nuclear weapons were legal, reasonable, and justified,” Shirley said. “Thus, they conclude that laws designed to protect property, such as the statutes charges in the instant case, cannot be applied in such a way that they abrogate the federal and international laws of war.”

But after a 16-page analysis, Shirley said the court has already found that the “justification-type defenses” advanced by the defendants are not a basis for dismissing a December indictment that includes the three most recent charges against them. In addition, the defendants lack standing to challenge United States policy on nuclear weapons, particularly in a criminal case, and the production, processing, and storage of nuclear weapons at Y-12 does not constitute a war crime, Shirley said. And the production, processing, and storage of nuclear weapons does not violate international law, the judge said.

The trio is accused of cutting through fences at Y-12 before dawn on July 28, evading guards in the high-security Protected Area—where deadly force is authorized—and splashing human blood and spray-painting slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where bomb-grade uranium is stored.

Boertje-Obed, Rice, and Walli have been charged with property destruction, property depredation, and injuring national defense premises. They face jail sentences of up to 35 years and fines of up to $750,000.

A trial has been scheduled before U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on May 7.

More information could be added later.