Despite pleas from her parents and attorneys, Theresa M. Cusimano was sentenced to a maximum term of six months in federal prison Friday for entering Fort Benning during the November SOA Watch protest.
U.S. Magistrate Stephen Hyles handed down the sentence in U.S. District Court after Cusimano declined to comment after the judge asked her if crossing into Fort Benning was wrong and she was deterred from committing the act again.
Cusimano, 43, was among about 3,000 protesters who gathered at the Benning Road gate Nov. 20, calling for closing the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the former School of the Americas. She was the only one charged with a misdemeanor count of trespassing onto a military installation after facing a similar charge in 2008.
Cusimano, who has a law degree from State University of New York at Buffalo but isn’t licensed, was represented by attorneys Bill Conwell of Portland, Ore., and Bill Quigley, professor of law at Loyola University in New Orleans.
Conwell sought a sentence of community service or time served. He had entered a plea of stipulation to the charge, which means the facts of Cusimano’s case wouldn’t be argued in court.
Martha and James Cusimano, her parents, asked Hyles to allow their daughter to return to Florida where she could serve in community organizations such as the food pantry or Habitat for Humanity.
Three days before the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Martha said the family recently visited the King Memorial in Atlanta where she learned about a letter the civil rights leader wrote while serving five days in jail for a peaceful protest in Birmingham, Ala., in April 1963.
She then quoted the words on the courtroom wall from Jimmy Carter, “There is but one law for all ...The law of humanity and justice.”
Since growing up in Pennsylvania, Cusimano was taught that peaceful protest was alright, her mother told the judge.
“I ask you to do something different,” Martha said. “Let her go down there and work for Habitat for Humanity.”
Capt. Jared Olson, a special assistant U.S. attorney, argued against a lesser sentence. He asked the judge to sentence Cusimano to six months in prison as a deterrent for a person who was arrested in 2008, sentenced to 60 days and fined $500.
The annual protest places a huge burden on Fort Benning and local law enforcement, Olson said. The sentence would help protect soldiers on post.
“We have to have control over Fort Benning to protect our soldiers,” he said. “We have live ranges. We have special forces.”
More than an hour before her trial, Cusimano had no regrets as she gathered on the cold steps of District Court in Columbus with 12 other SOA Watch supporters, including the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a catholic priest and founder of SOA Watch, and Theresa El-Amin, regional director of the Southern Anti-Racism Network.
“I have a clear conscience and I’m grounded in my faith,” said Cusimano. “It is my faith that brings me here today because I can not participate in the human rights crimes. I can not be a participant. If my country chooses to participate through the School of the Americas, I will not allow that to happen in my name.”
Nico Udu-gama, a field representative for SOA Watch, said Cusimano was prepared to be taken into custody on Friday.
Over the last two decades, protests have been held to mark the anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuits priests, their co-worker and teenage daughter in 1989 in El Salvador. Some soldiers were linked to the School of the Americas which closed in December 2000 and reopened under its new name in January 2001.
El-Amin said Americans live in a country that allows free speech. “We also live in a country that train soldiers to do bad things,” she said. “They may not intentionally train them to do bad things but they do bad things.”
She said Cusimano wouldn’t be forgotten while serving time in federal prison. “We are going to come visit you every chance we get,” El-Amin said.
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