Nuns could be sent back to prison Ron Cassie, The Examiner photo Kristine Buls/Examiner)

Sisters Carol Gilbert, left, and Ardeth Platte are fighting restitution payments.
Oct 27, 2006 5:00 AM

Dominican sisters Ardeth Platte, 70, and Carol Gilbert, 59, both from the local Jonah House, and Jackie Hudson, 72, of Washington state, could face new jail time after U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn denied their restitution application last week.

They have refused to pay the Air Force, but instead contributed hours working in the prison laundry, hours knitting scarves, mittens and sweaters for the poor, and continued running their free food pantry for the hungry in Baltimore after their release from prison this year.

“We just can't give money to the military for killing and building nuclear weapons,” Gilbert said.

“It's an issue of political and moral conscience the judge acknowledged when he requested a community-service and alternative restitution requirement 10 months ago,” Platte said.

During a plow shares action four years ago, Gilbert, Hudson and Platte cut through a chain-link fence at the silo containing a Minuteman III missile and used baby bottles to dispense their own blood in the shape of a cross on the silo.

Friends and supporters raised $600,000 on the women's behalf and contributed it in the sisters' names to nonprofit literacy and food banks projects, as well as peace and justice organizations, as part of their restitution offer.

Blackburn did not give a reason for his decision. Platte said federal prosecutor Robert Brown has pushed for the stiff penalties in the case.

“I am surprised it was rejected; we've been waiting to hear since April,” Platte said. “We're considered to be in violation of our probation now. They could issue a warrant for arrest and the marshals could come and arrest us anytime.”

Platte went to prison sentence for 41 months, Hudson received 30 months and Gilbert 33 months. Now on probation, the local sisters have not been able visit to family on the West Coast or their order in Grand Rapids, Mich., since their release.

“Our lawyer asked for our opinion, and we told him we need time to pray and discern what we should do next,” Platte said.