Biography
Barbara Katt was a painter and peace activist in Bemidji, Minnesota who on August 10, 1984 walked into the Sperry Defense Systems plant at Eagan, Minnesota with John LaForge and used household hammers to damage two prototype guidance computers intended for Trident submarines and F-4G aircraft, poured blood over the equipment and delivered a citizens indictment accusing the company of violating international law. They remained at the scene and were arrested. A jury convicted them on October 11, 1984 of felony destruction of government property, and on November 8 Judge Miles W. Lord suspended the entire six-month sentence in favour of six months of unsupervised probation, delivering a sentencing speech that attacked nuclear-weapons production and the contrast between this prosecution and Sperry’s own overbilling of the government. She served no prison time for the action. In June 2000 she was held for three days at the Ashland County Jail after videotaping the Silence Trident action at the Navy’s Project ELF site near Clam Lake, Wisconsin, and was released when the court found no probable cause to charge her.
Additional 1981-1986 episodes: contemporary source audit
The earlier Offutt, Grand Forks and Honeywell episodes are separate from the August 1984 Sperry action and the 2000 ELF detention. The existing two cases and identified photograph are unchanged. The Offutt December 1981 action led to April 27, 1982 sentencing and ten days actually served, with endpoints unknown. August 9, 1982 detention ended the same day, before a later December 14 federal sentence and actual February 11, 1983 release from Fort Worth. The April 13, 1983 Grand Forks jail admission is documented; April 20 is the plea hearing, not a verified discharge. She was listed recently out by June 6. The January 15, 1986 Grand Forks arrest led to overnight detention, but the later release date is unknown. At Honeywell, the August arrest ended the same day; exact August day is not reported. The later September 3 sentence and actual September 13 release are recorded separately without guessing the admission date.
Sources: Nuclear Resister 12, PDF9; 14, PDF9; 15, PDF12; 16, PDF8; 17, PDF3 and PDF5; 38, PDF4; 41, PDF2.
Contemporary anti-nuclear custody report
The SAC update distinguishes the March 16, 1982 verdict from future sentencing in the December 28, 1981 Offutt/Strategic Air Command protest. Brent Vanderlinden, Wayne Siebleman, Nancy LaMusca, Barb Katt, John LaForge and Kristen Layng were found guilty; Bill Balsinger was acquitted; Joyce Glenn and Frank Cardiello pleaded no contest. The six-month figure was maximum exposure, not actual served time. This March verdict does not replace the separately sourced later April 27 sentencing date or ten-day custody evidence.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 11, April 15, 1982, original pages 5.
