Biography
Son of Church of the Brethren minister Rev. Vernard Eller. An honors physics-and-math major at church-affiliated Bridgewater College. The second man indicted (July 12, 1982) since the Vietnam War for failure to register — and via his Aug. 17, 1982 conviction, the first 1980s draft-registration nonregistrant convicted. U.S. District Judge James C. Turk found him guilty after a one-day trial, called him "an honorable person," and rejected the government's call for prison. Sentenced to 3 years' probation, ordered to register within 90 days, and assigned 2 years' unpaid public service (cancer research at the Salem VA Medical Center). He never registered; the conviction stands.
Alternative service is not imprisonment
Contemporary August 17, 1982 reporting dates Eller's conviction and immediate probation sentence to that day, not August 16. The same report describes prison and a fine as possible future penalties, not an imposed jail term. The unsupported incarceration entry is removed. No independently documented July 11 arrest was found, so that field is also cleared rather than replaced with an indictment date. Becker's complete named table row assigns Eller alternative service; the $4,000 fine appears in Mark Schmucker's next row and is removed from Eller's case. The Church of the Brethren dates the start of Eller's unpaid work to June 1983. Such service is not prison admission, and its completion is not a prison-release date. Existing portrait retained.
Sources: John Witt, UPI, August 17, 1982, conviction and probation report; Marc Becker, Men and Women Who Dare to Say No, named table rows and underlying reports; Church of the Brethren Newsline, July 30, 2008, unpaid work beginning June 1983. No inferred prison-service counter or release day added.
