PORT TOWNSEND — Fines against two Jefferson County activists for blocking a road during an anti-nuclear protest in August were reduced from $68 to $25 by a Kitsap County District judge last week.
Douglas Milholland, 67, and Brenda McMillan, 81, both of Port Townsend, received the citations Aug. 10 for being on a roadway unlawfully.
They were among those blocking the road to protest the Trident Nuclear Submarine Base in Central Kitsap County.
District Court Judge Pro Tem Steve Olsen reduced the fines Oct. 27.
A representative of the Kitsap District Court Clerk’s office confirmed that Olsen lowered the fine but added that no reason for the action was listed in the court record.
On Tuesday, Olsen declined specific comment about the case, saying that as a pro-tem judge, he did not want to speak for the court.
Mitigation court
“It was a mitigation court, and things get mitigated,” Olsen said.
Milholland said he has participated in several anti-nuclear protests at the Trident base since it was commissioned in 2004.
McMillan, who said she doesn’t remember how many times she’s been arrested for protests at Bangor, said she addressed the court before the sentence was passed.
She provided a written statement she said she delivered before the judge.
“I can’t remain silent. Protest is my only recourse. Bangor Submarine Base is an accident waiting to happen,” she said.
“Hopefully, there will come a day when we protesters will not be punished but thanked.”
The Bangor Submarine Base manages the third-largest collection of nuclear weapons in the country, with approximately 1,700 Trident missiles either stored at its hilltop depot or aboard its fleet of eight Trident submarines, according to the Center for Land Use Interpretation at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Bangor.
Milholland said the protest was timed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the U.S. military, an action that is credited for ending World War II.
Impeded flow of traffic
The August protest impeded the flow of about 1,000 cars driven by workers at the base, Milholland said.
Milholland said workers saw him and McMillan holding up a sign that said: “We can all live without Trident.”
“The civil disobedience was a deeply courteous, successful and moving event,” he said.
Milholland said the courtroom was “filled with people who got a ticket for speeding or not wearing their seat belt” and that “it’s not the kind of court where there are substantial penalties.”
“We broke the law, and we weren’t contesting that,” Milholland said.
“We were willing to pay the fine in the hope that it would encourage the United States to avoid nuclear war.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
