SUBMARINE VANDALS WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 13, 1993                   TAG: 9304130236
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Medium
SUBMARINE VANDALS WILL DEFEND THEMSELVES
Three peace activists who allegedly cut through a fence to get into a shipyard and throw blood on a submarine told a judge Monday they would represent themselves on charges of trespassing and damaging property.
The three, members of a disarmament group known as Good News Plowshares, signed waivers of counsel at separate, brief hearings before General District Judge Joan Morris and remained in custody on $1,500 bond each.
The judge set May 4 for trial.
About a dozen supporters of the three sat in the courtroom during the proceedings. A few applauded afterward and were told to leave.
Outside, the group held a vigil and carried signs before the hearing. The signs - "Seek the Unarmed Christ," "The Arms Race Crucifies Humanity" and "Armaments Kill the Poor," among others - drew the attention of people coming into the building, but few spoke to the group.
Gregory Boertje-Obed, 37, and his wife, Michele Naar-Obed, 36, both of Baltimore; and Kathleen A. Boylan, 43, of Wyandanch, N.Y., were arrested Friday after they poured blood on the submarine Tucson at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.
According to Plowshares officials, the three cut through a fence in the shipyard about 3 a.m., climbed an 80-foot scaffold to get on the submarine, poured their own blood on the vessel and hammered missile launch tubes.
A shipyard spokesman said there was no damage other than the blood. The Tucson, a nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class boat, is under construction and is expected to be commissioned in 1995.
Boertje-Obed, the only one of the three to ask a question during the hearings, asked the judge to clarify conditions of release.
"Sir, if you make bond, you'll be released," Morris said.
However, Art Laffin, a spokesman for Plowshares, said the three did not plan to post bond.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB