GOOD FRIDAY- APRIL FOOLS DAY PLOWSHARES: At noon on April 1, 1994 (Good Friday and April Fool's Day), Fr. Carl Kabat, still on parole for the Silo Pruning Hooks action, entered the Grand Forks Missile Field in North Dakota dressed as a clown. After cutting through a fence surrounding a Minuteman III missile silo (not scheduled to be deactivated under the START I agreement), he proceeded to hammer on a combination dial for the silo as well as the silo lid. He prayed, sang and hung a banner on the silo fence that said "Stop Nuclear Weapons."After about a half-an-hour, a helicopter, a tank and 10 soldiers armed with machines guns arrived at the site and held him at the site for two hours. Meanwhile, Sam Day and Michael Sprong, who were outside the missile silo fence supporting Carl, were asked to leave. When they refused to do so they, too, were taken into custody and charged with trespass (this charge was later dropped). Carl was taken to the Barnes County Jail in Valley City, North Dakota. At a hearing the following Monday he was charged in State Court with trespass and malicious destruction of property -- both felony charges -- and was ordered held without bond. During his arraignment on April 13, Carl pled "no contest" to the charges against him and stated that his action was on behalf of the children of the world. On May 16th, Carl was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay a $7,000 fine.

Following his release from prison, Carl was placed on probation for five years. On August 6, 2000, Carl, wearing a clown suit, offered a peace witness at a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo in northeast Colorado (site of the Minuteman III Plowshares action), in violation of his probation. He was charged with trespass and released pending trial. On May 4, 2001 he was convicted by a jury in Federal Court in Denver, Colorado and is now imprisoned again awaiting sentencing.