wfn.org | Pastor gets 3-month jail sentence for protest

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 9, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{269}

By United Methodist News Service

A retired United Methodist pastor was sentenced June 8 to three months in
federal prison for his participation in a protest against the U.S. Army
School of the Americas.

U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Lawson imposed the three-month sentence,
along with a fine of $2,500, on the Rev. Charles Butler, 73, of Rochester,
Minn., and seven others convicted in a March trial. The hearing took place
in Columbus, Ga. Two other defendants who had previously served jail terms
received longer sentences of six months and one year.

Butler and the others were found guilty of violating a ban barring
protesters from entering the school, which is at Fort Benning in Columbus,
during a massive November demonstration. Protesters have called for closing
the school because of reports that some of its foreign graduates allegedly
have committed human rights abuses in their own countries. 

The pastor could have received a sentence of up to six months in federal
prison and a $5,000 fine. However, he told United Methodist News Service
that the judge displayed some compassion for the protesters at the time of
the trial. "People were expecting it (the sentence) would be less than the
maximum," he said.

Butler was freed after posting a $250 bond. He was told he would receive a
letter in six to eight weeks indicating when and where to report to serve
his prison term. He hopes to be assigned to the federal medical center in
Rochester, where he has assisted with Hispanic worship services in the past.
"I'll have to try to see my role (there) from a different perspective," he
acknowledged.

The United Methodist Church's top legislative assembly, the General
Conference, passed a resolution in May that called for closing the School of
the Americas. A wide variety of other organizations and individuals, ranging
from the United Methodist Council of Bishops to members of the U.S.
Congress, also support closing it.

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United Methodist News Service
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