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4 arrested in Bridgewater protest

By CARYN SHINSKE
Staff Writer
BRIDGEWATER -- A protest Saturday at the Bridgewater Sports Arena resulted in several arrests after an altercation occurred inside the building and others outside the facility refused to leave the property, police said.

In all, four people were arrested while protesting a recruitment meeting of a group they claim discriminates against immigrants.

Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest sent emergency response teams to the arena, at 1425 Frontier Road, to help Bridgewater police with crowd control. Inside the arena was a recruitment meeting for the New Jersey Citizens for Homeland Defense and the Minuteman Project.

At 12:15 p.m., about 70 activists representing the International Committee Against Racism and the International Committee for Immigration Rights arrived at the arena to protest the meeting, which was being held by the United Patriots of America, according to the prosecutor's office.

United Patriots of America calls itself "a patriotic organization representing traditional mainstream America," and states, in part, that "one of our major problems is the effect that illegal alien trespassers are having on our society," according to the Web site for LetsTakeBackAmerica.com. The group is a United Patriots of America organization.

Forrest said two of the protesters refused to leave when the group was told they would have to move the protest off the private arena property. Graciello Moreno, 55, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Sebastian Natera, 30, of New York, N.Y., were each charged with defiant trespass.

A dozen other protesters snuck into the meeting, disrupted it and began an altercation, Forrest said.

Derek Pearl, 67, of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Heidi Ison, 23, of North Arlington, were charged with defiant trespass.

Ison also was charged with disorderly conduct, Pearl with simple assault. They, along with the other protesters, were removed from the building and the arena property, Forrest said.