By MIKE SIMONSON and KEVIN MURPHY

Special to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sept. 28, 2001

After more than a decade of prosecuting trespassers at the naval submarine communications facility in Ashland County, the district attorney there now says he will stop handling such cases.

Over the last 15 years, hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested at the Project ELF site in Clam Lake in acts of civil disobedience. Project ELF, named for its extremely low frequency radio waves, uses an antenna network to transmit coded messages to submarines carrying nuclear weapons in deep waters around the world.

Critics contend that the site is a relic of the Cold War and is no longer needed. Supporters say the transmitter remains an important military communications system.

Ashland County has had an agreement with the U.S. Navy to police the area and prosecute trespassers in exchange for between $5,000 and $10,000 a year from the federal government.

However, when four protesters showed up for a jury trial in Ashland this week, they were surprised to find an empty courtroom. The four were accused of trespassing at the ELF site in May during a Mother's Day protest.

Ashland County District Attorney Michael Gableman asked that the charges be dismissed in that protest and said he won't bring ELF cases to court anymore. Instead, he said, such matters should be handled by federal authorities.

"They are not denying their culpability under the civil laws that exist, what they're actually asking for is a change in the law, relief that they have asked and been denied numerous times before, and it is relief in fact that we simply cannot grant them at this level," Gableman said of the protesters.

He added that it's expensive for Ashland County to prosecute and jail people who are opposed to a federal facility. ELF protesters frequently requested jury trials, which added to the county's costs. Acting U.S. Attorney Grant C. Johnson has said if the Navy files a complaint, his office will prosecute future cases against protesters.

One ELF protester said Gableman's decision to no longer prosecute simple trespass cases "definitely turned a corner" in the lengthy campaign against the North Woods naval installation.

"It's a victory because these cases are now in the proper venue. The federal government should have to defend its nuclear arsenal, not Ashland County," said John LaForge, one of those who was to stand trial this week for his involvement in the May 11 protest.

Some military bases deal with trespassers by issuing first-time offenders a "ban and bar" letter prohibiting them from returning to the base, he said. Subsequent violations can be prosecuted in federal court and subject to a six-month jail sentence, said LaForge, who plans to demonstrate at the site Oct. 7 in observance of Gandhi's birthday.

The U.S. attorney's office in Madison prosecuted two protesters earlier this year who cut some of ELF's antenna poles, temporarily disabling the transmitting system, but to date has not prosecuted simple trespassers.