Biography
Nigel Cottier was arrested for trespass at a Montana nuclear-missile silo on October 24, 1983 as part of the Silence One Silo anti-nuclear campaign. The contemporary report individually says he was released after three days. It does not explicitly print the release calendar day, which is therefore not back-calculated. His co-defendant Will Kerling remained jailed awaiting sentencing; that different outcome is not assigned to Cottier.
Sources and limits
The Nuclear Resister No21, November 15, 1983, original page 4.
Individually reported anti-nuclear protest custody; forecast release and nominal sentence lengths are not treated as actual discharge or completed time. No demographic attributes, vital dates, unsupported name expansions or current custody status are inferred.
Contemporary 1983–1984 custody evidence
Nigel Cottier’s October 24, 1983 Montana case proceeded to conviction in December and a January 20, 1984 six-month imposed sentence. The article explicitly says he remained free on appeal, so no new jail admission, six actual months or continuous October-to-sentence custody is inferred. The already-reported three-day initial stay remains unchanged.
The Nuclear Resister No. 23, February 12, 1984, original PDF 7 / printed 6.
Later Boron federal custody following the Montana silo case
The December 9, 1985 Nuclear Resister directory individually lists Nigel Cottier, register01192-046, at Boron Federal Prison Camp for a Montana silo trespass case, with a nominal six-month term and an anticipated December 19 release. The January 20, 1986 issue individually lists him as recently released. The anticipated date is not adopted as his actual discharge and the nominal term is not recorded as six months actually served. This later actual federal confinement is separate from his already-recorded three-day initial October 1983 detention and his January 1984 sentence while free on appeal. The directory labels the action11/83, whereas the earlier detailed article dates his arrest October 24, 1983; that source discrepancy remains explicit and is not resolved by inventing another arrest or silently changing the existing case. First later admission and actual release dates remain unknown.
The Nuclear Resister No.36, December 9, 1985, original page4; The Nuclear Resister No.37, January 20, 1986, original page4.
The original explicitly says Cottier lost his appeal and began serving a six-month sentence August 7, 1985. This fills only the later Boron service phase, distinct from the earlier three-day initial detention. A scheduled December 19 release remains unverified.
