Immigration protesters balk at paying fine, charged with probation violation

April 11, 2012 5:08 PM
Michael D. Abernethy / Times-News

GRAHAM — Three protesters found guilty last month of failure to disperse stemming from a 2009 protest outside the Alamance County jail were taken into custody and booked into the jail Wednesday.

Patrick M. O’Neill of Raleigh, Francisco Javier Risso of Morganton and Audrey B. Schwankl of Pittsboro turned themselves in to Graham police just after 2 p.m. Wednesday. They were among seven arrested in 2009 at the jail during a protest of the 287(g) immigration enforcement program, which allows sheriff’s deputies to act as federal officers in detaining and deporting illegal immigrants.

In a March trial, they were found guilty of failure to disperse. The judge in the case issued them a 10-day suspended sentence and ordered them to pay a $200 fine and court costs by April 9 and remain on 18 months’ unsupervised probation.

Risso and O’Neill both objected to paying the fines when they were sentenced. Schwankl wrote a letter to the Times-News saying she also objected to paying the fines and preferred to serve active time.

The three chose to violate their probation in hopes of serving an active sentence in solidarity with immigrants detained under the 287(g) program, who can’t pay a fine and be released from jail, O’Neill said Wednesday.

The three turned themselves in outside the Graham Police Department.

Orders for their arrest were issued Monday after they failed to pay the fines and court costs, a violation of their probation.

They are scheduled to appear in court next week on the charge of violating their probation.

The March jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on two other co-defendants who stood trial on the 2009 charges.

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