By Georgia Bulletin Staff

Lil and Bill Corrigan of Marietta and six other people were acquitted June 19 in Brunswick, Ga. of charges arising from a Good Friday prayer vigil at the gate of the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.

“We are all feeling just overjoyed,” said Mrs. Corrigan, 66, in a telephone interview the day of the verdict. She and her husband, a retired engineer for Lockheed, are members of Holy Family parish in Marietta.

They were arrested March 24 in St. Marys, Ga. at the conclusion of a prayer service which had not been intended as an act of civil disobedience, according to the couple. Base security and the Camden County sheriff’s department had been told, in advance, of the service, the Corrigans said, and the eight were arrested as they finished praying and left three crosses at the gate.

The verdict of acquittal by Judge Anthony Alaimo in U.S. District Court in Brunswick came after the Navy rested its case and before any witnesses for the defense were called, according to Mrs. Corrigan. Their lawyers asked for the verdict, saying the Navy had not proved the area was clearly defined and marked as part of the base. “They were trying to say we entered the base,” she said. “We didn’t and no one had any intention to” enter the base.

“This was a first. We don’t get very many victories in this kind of business,” an elated Mrs. Corrigan said. “I really believe there were an awful lot of people praying for us.”

They had pleaded not guilty at a hearing April 10. It was the first time either one had been arrested.

In other court action involving demonstrators opposed to the deployment of Trident II missiles at the base, hearings were held before a federal magistrate in Brunswick on June 12 for 23 persons arrested May 6 at Kings Bay.

Their arrests came after a Pax Christi-sponsored Mass celebrated on a lawn outside the submarine base. Celebrant of the Liturgy was Bishop Raymond W. Lessard, of Savannah. Concelebrants were Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of Detroit; Bishop Walter F. Sullivan, of Richmond, and Abbott Patrick Shelton, OSB, of St. Leon’s Abbey in Florida.

Fifteen of the 23 defendants appeared for the hearing. Bench warrants were issued for the 15 who did not appear. They had all been charged with trespassing on federal property after crossing beyond a police barricade set up some distance from the gate of the submarine base on May 6.

Two of the defendants, Miriam Hope, 70, and Sanderson Beck, both of Pax Christi Georgia, pleaded not guilty and will stand trial. The other 13 defendants pleaded nolo contendere and were each sentenced to one-year probation, a $200 fine, and 50 hours of community service.

Nine of the 13 paid their fines while four others refused to pay, arguing they were committed to living simple lives and working with the poor. The four were sentenced to five days in jail and 100 hours of community service. They were then taken to the Camden County jail to begin serving their sentences.

Jailed were Janet LeBoeuf, New Orleans Pax Christi; Sue Frankel, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House, Washington, D.C.; Jack Marth, a volunteer in a New York City soup kitchen, and Chuck Walker of Jubilee House, Americus, Ga.

Mrs. LeBoeuf’s sister, Judi Cosgrove, a member of Transfiguration parish in Marietta, had escorted her to the police barricade on May 6 at Kings Bay. Ms. Cosgrove said this is the first time her sister had been arrested. She said she is a full-time volunteer with Pax Christi in New Orleans and also volunteers with the Daughters of Charity in a poor parish in New Orleans.