By Pat Milton
Associated Press
NEW YORK – The Rev. Al Sharpton, handcuffed and escorted by police, arrived from Puerto Rico today and immediately headed for a detention facility to serve a 90-day sentence for trespassing on Navy land on Vieques island.
Also on Sharpton’s flight from San Juan were New York City Councilman Adolfo Carrion, New York state legislator Jose Rivera and Bronx County Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez.
The four, all sentenced in a May 1 protest against bombing exercises on Vieques, were taken from their plane directly into a van on the tarmac. They were headed to an undisclosed federal detention center in New York, said Sharpton attorney Sanford Rubenstein.
Juan Felicino, a Sharpton acquaintance who was on the flight, said the civil rights activist “didn’t look too upset.”
Sharpton was convicted of a misdemeanor but sentenced as a repeat offender because he had prior arrests for civil disobedience in New York.
His lawyers plan to appeal.
The Navy has used its range on Vieques, home to 9,400 people, for six decades and says it is vital for national security. Critics say it poses a health threat, which the Navy denies.
Opposition to the exercises grew after a civilian guard was killed on the range in 1999 by two off-target bombs. The Navy has since stopped using live ammunition, and islanders will vote in November whether the Navy must leave in 2003 or can stay, resuming the use of live ammunition.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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