Oak Ridge Today

Three Y-12 protesters will discuss Oak Ridge action in first public reunion since prison

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28, 2012, and vandalized a uranium storage building. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex three years ago and vandalized the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility will discuss their Oak Ridge action in their first public reunion since they were released from prison in May.

Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli will speak at the Church of the Savior (UCC) in Knoxville at 7 p.m. today (Friday, August 7).

Their sabotage conviction from the July 28, 2012, incident was overturned earlier this year. Since their release from prison in May, the three protesters, who are described as nonviolent peace activists, have appeared on national and international news programs, organizers said. [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters: Nun sentenced to three years, men receive five

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Bill Quigley, Michele Naar-Obed, and Chris Irwin

Defense attorney Bill Quigley, left; Michele Naar-Obed, wife of Y-12 protester Greg Boertje-Obed; and defense attorney Chris Irwin, center right, after a sentencing hearing in Knoxville on Tuesday.

Note: This story was last updated at 10:20 a.m. Feb. 19.

KNOXVILLE—The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July 2012 and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on a uranium storage building were sentenced to three to five years in prison on Tuesday.

Megan Rice, an 84-year old Catholic nun who last lived in Washington, D.C., received the shortest sentence. She was sentenced to 35 months, or just under three years. Rice is the oldest of the three anti-nuclear weapons activists. She also has the least extensive criminal history, Judge Amul R. Thapar said during a 4.5-hour sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Tuesday afternoon.

The other two protesters, Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, both were sentenced to 62 months, or a little more than five years. They have more extensive prior records. Boertje-Obed is a 58-year-old house painter from Duluth, Minn., and Walli is a 64-year-old Catholic worker and Vietnam veteran from Washington, D.C. Thapar said Boertje-Obed has 40 arrests and more than 20 convictions, and he has previously served time in prison. So has Walli. He was released on Jan. 5, 2012—about six months before the break-in—after an eight-month federal sentence for an earlier trespassing incident at Y-12.

“What do I do when eight months didn’t deter him?” Thapar asked defense attorney Chris Irwin. “It’s getting worse, not better.” [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters to be sentenced in three hearings Tuesday

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The Fruit of Justice is Peace Slogan on HEUMF at Y-12

Three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28, 2012, splashed human blood and, quoting Proverbs, sprayed paint on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The protesters also hammered the building, causing it to chip, and strung up crime scene tape. (Submitted photo)

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists who cut through high-security fences and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the side of a uranium storage building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July 2012 will be sentenced in three separate hearings in Knoxville on Tuesday.

Their earlier consolidated sentencing hearing on Jan. 28 was delayed due to snow.

U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar has ordered that Michael Walli, a 64-year-old Catholic worker from Washington, D.C., be sentenced at 12 p.m. Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Walli is facing the longest potential sentence, a range of about seven to nine years, for the damage caused during the unprecedented security breach.

Greg Boertje-Obed, a 58-year-old painter from Duluth, Minn., will be sentenced next, at 2 p.m. His recommended sentence is roughly six to eight years. [Read more…]

Judge says Y-12 protesters not contrite as snow delays sentencing

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28, 2012, and vandalized a uranium storage building. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

KNOXVILLE—The three protesters who cut through fences and vandalized a uranium storage building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July 2012 have not shown contrition or accepted responsibility for what they’ve done, a federal judge said during a Tuesday sentencing hearing.

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli—have acknowledged that they splashed human blood, hung crime scene tape, and hammered on the side of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility on July 28, 2012. They have freely given interviews to reporters and admitted that they spray-painted slogans—they called them “Biblical graffiti”—on the side of the HEUMF, which stores most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium.

But acknowledging their actions is not the same as contrition, U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar suggested during a Tuesday sentencing hearing at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Courthouse in Knoxville. To accept responsibility, the trio would have to show contrition and remorse, and acknowledge that what they did was wrong, Thapar said.

However, the defendants have fought the government at every step in the 18-month-old case, the judge said. [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters to be sentenced Tuesday morning

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28, 2012. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

The three protesters convicted on federal charges after sneaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex and splashing human blood and spray-painting slogans on a uranium storage building in July 2012 will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Tuesday morning.

The sentencing hearing for the three anti-nuclear weapons activists—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli—is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The defendants will be sentenced individually after a joint hearing to hear witness testimony and objections to a pre-sentence report.

The government plans to call retired Brig. Gen. Rodney L. Johnson as a witness. He testified at the two-day trial in May, and he is the senior vice president and deputy general manager of security operations and emergency services at Y-12.

A Catholic nun, house painter, and laborer, Boertje-Obed, Rice, and Walli were convicted in May 2013 of destroying U.S. property and attempting to injure national defense premises. They acknowledged sneaking into Y-12 before dawn on July 28, 2012, and cutting through three fences in a high-security Protected Area before vandalizing the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium is stored. But they said their unprecedented intrusion was peaceful, religiously motivated, and nonviolent, a symbolic disarming of Y-12. [Read more…]

Federal judge orders Y-12 protesters jailed until September sentencing

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex and vandalized a uranium storage building on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalized a uranium storage building must stay in jail until they are sentenced Sept. 23, a federal judge said Friday.

The three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, 57; Megan Rice, 83; and Michael Walli, 64—had sought to be released until their sentencing hearings this fall. They each face up to 30 years in prison.

But U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar denied that request in a four-page order filed late Friday afternoon. [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters remain jailed while judge considers whether crimes violent

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Y-12 Protesters Detention Hearing

Michele Naar-Obed, wife of Y-12 protester Greg Boertje-Obed, and supporter Paul Magno, center, listen outside U.S. District Court on Thursday as supporter Bill Bichsel of Tacoma, Wash., talks to the media.

KNOXVILLE—The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalized a uranium storage building will remain jailed while a federal judge considers whether their crimes were violent.

Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli were convicted of property depredation and willfully injuring national defense premises on Wednesday. They had a detention hearing Thursday morning. [Read more…]

Government rests in federal trial against Y-12 protesters

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The Fruit of Justice is Peace Slogan on HEUMF at Y-12

Three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 allegedly splashed human blood and, quoting Proverbs, sprayed paint on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The protesters also hammered the building, causing it to chip, and strung up crime scene tape. (Submitted photo)

The government rested on Tuesday in the federal trial against three protesters accused of vandalizing a uranium storage building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July.

The three anti-nuclear weapons activists—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—face charges of property depredation and willfully injuring national defense premises.

Jury selection was Monday, and the trial started Tuesday.

It resumes at 9 a.m. today in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.

Rice is expected to resume testifying this morning.

Citing insufficient evidence, Y-12 protesters seek acquittal on most serious charge

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William Quigley and Supporters

William P. Quigley of New Orleans, left, an attorney for one of the three anti-nuclear weapons activists who spray-painted biblical passages and poured blood on a uranium storage building at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July, greets supporters outside U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Tuesday.

Attorneys for the three protesters on trial this week for vandalizing a uranium storage building at a nuclear weapons plant said the government doesn’t have enough evidence to convict the defendants on a national defense charge, the most serious of the two remaining charges.

The national defense charge alleges Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli willfully injured national defense premises when they cut through three fences in a high-security Protected Area at Y-12 on July 28 and spray-painted biblical passages and poured blood on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium is stored. The charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years. [Read more…]

Government asks court to dismiss one charge against Y-12 protesters

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

Note: This story was last updated at 9:47 a.m. April 29.

Federal prosecutors have asked the U.S. District Court in Knoxville to dismiss one of the charges against the three anti-nuclear weapons activists accused of breaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and splashing blood and spray-painting slogans on a uranium storage building.

A motion filed on Thursday said the United States has determined that it is unable to establish jurisdiction for that charge, one of three faced by the defendants: Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli. That charge alleges that the trio destroyed and injured, and attempted to destroy and injure, Y-12 property. [Read more…]

Y-12 protesters ask court to dismiss sabotage charges

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Transform Now Plowshares

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)

In one of a series of motions last week, the three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 asked a federal court to dismiss the new sabotage charges filed against them in December.

Attorneys for the protesters—anti-nuclear weapons activists Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael R. Walli—said the new charges, which could add up to 20 years in prison, are unconstitutional, vindictive, and selective. They said the new charges were brought because the defendants earlier refused to plead guilty to less serious crimes.

In addition, the sabotage charges are rarely applied to civilian conduct and should not have been used in this case because Y-12 is a private contractor site and not a military base, the four attorneys for the protesters said in a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Friday.

[Read more…]

Y-12 protesters say fence hole remains after break-in, officials say it’s repaired

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Hole in Y-12 Perimeter Fence

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance says three protesters crossed into the Y-12 National Security Complex through this hole the trio cut in a perimeter fence before dawn on July 28, and OREPA alleges that the hole had not been repaired as of Monday. (Submitted photo)

More than four months after three protesters broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex, a hole that the trio cut in a perimeter fence still hasn’t been repaired, an Oak Ridge group said Wednesday.

In a statement, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which has supported the Y-12 protesters, said two OREPA members went to the nuclear weapons plant on Monday and, after 15 minutes of walking, found the spot where the protesters had cut through an outer fence. It was open from the ground up to a spot about four feet high—a hole large enough for a person to squeeze through, the group said.

But in a statement Thursday afternoon, federal officials said the fence has been repaired.

[Read more…]