By Miriam Raftery

December 14, 2009 (San Diego) – In Tucson, Arizona on December 4, a federal judge ordered a theology student to reconsider his refusal to accept community service as a sentence for leaving water jugs for migrants crossing the border in an area where hundreds of border crossers have died in the past year alone. Walt Staton was convicted of littering by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He plans to appeal his conviction.

But the judge warned, if Staton refuses to accept his sentence(which included community service, a year of supervised probation and a one year ban on entering the federal wildlife refuge where he left water jugs), he could be fined $100,000 and spend up to a year in prison, the Arizona Daily Wildcat reported.

By Miriam Raftery
Exclusive: An East County Magazine special report
 
June 14, 2009 (San Diego’s East County) – Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen America Defense(MAD), has been arrested along with two men and charged with double homicide in a home invasion. The victims included a nine-year-old girl and her father. Forde has recently visited Camp Vigilance, a high-desert training camp operated by Minuteman Civil Defense near Boulevard in San Diego’s East County in 2008, East County Magazine has learned. A second suspect arrested also has ties to Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC), which operates a Minutemen training facility in East County.photo: Forde in East County, courtesy of Campo Minutemen.