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About 250 activists took part in an anti-drone protest outside the New York Air National Guard Base on East Malloy Road, DeWitt, April 28, 2013.
(Stephen D. Cannerelli / scannerelli@syracuse.com)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Four drone protesters found guilty in June of trespassing at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base during a 2013 demonstration have been sentenced.
According to Upstate Drone Action Coalition, four of their members -- Joan Pleune of Brooklyn, Beverly Rice of Manhattan, Ellen Barfield of Baltimore, and Jules Orkin of Bergenfield, N.J. -- were sentenced Wednesday in DeWitt Town Court by Judge Joseph J. Zavaglia.
Zavaglia sentenced each of the four protesters to a year of conditional discharge, a $250 fine and $125 court fee, and a two-year order or protection.
Pleune and Rice told Zavaglia through their lawyer that they would not agree to the conditional discharge, the drone coalition said, so he sentenced them to 15 days in jail. Pleune and Rice were taken from court in handcuffs
The four sentenced Wednesday were among 31 arrested two years ago at Hancock Field during the staging of a "die-in." At a four-day trial in June, a jury of six people acquitted all four protesters of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration charges.
The Hancock base became the site of the 174th Attack Wing of the National Guard in 2010, housing an MQ-9 Reaper drone and the first to have an MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft squadron. The drones, the use of which became controversial, have flow missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Demonstrations have been held twice a month organized by activist groups like Upstate Drone Action, who oppose drones. There have been 160 arrests at the base, according to the group.