On April 18, 2007, at the Rabinowitz Courthouse in Fairbanks, a jury found Don Muller, owner of Old Harbor Books in Sitka, Alaska, guilty of Criminal Trespass II for refusing to leave Senator Ted Stevens's Fairbanks office at closing time (4 p.m.) on Feb. 20, 2007. Muller was sentenced by Judge Jane Kauver to 90 days with 75 days suspended,and a fine of $1,000. He is currently serving his 15 days in the Fairbanks Correctional Center.

Muller, along with retired engineer Rob Mulford of Veterans for Peace, and several other persons visited Ted Stevens's office on the afternoon of Feb. 20 with a copy of Pace e Bene's Declaration of Peace, along with a list of names of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, and another list of Iraqi war dead. They were taking part in the nationwide "Occupation Project," organized in cooperation with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Occupation Projects have taken place in 25 states since January, 2007 and numerous arrests have been made.

In Fairbanks, after a spirited conversation with Stevens's aide, Diane Hutchison, and the reading of several pages of names, most of the participants left. A few minutes after four o'clock, when Mulford and Muller continued to read names, they were arrested and spent that night in the Fairbanks Correctional Center.

Muller returned to Fairbanks for his trial this week. Rob Mulford's trials for this arrest, and an earlier arrest at Senator Murkowski's office, are scheduled for the week of April 25 and also for June 7, 2007.

Muller represented himself during his jury trial. He was allowed to present a "Necessity Defense" in which he proposed that his nonviolent act of civil disobedience was necessary to alert citizens to the graver offense of the ongoing war.

About 30 Fairbanksans have taken part in four "Occupation Project" visits to congressional offices in Fairbanks since January 18. Muller and Mulford are the only two persons charged with trespass. The series of visits has been a moving demonstration of the process of creative nonviolence in Fairbanks, and may be a first for this city. The purpose of these congressional visits, according to Mulford, is to make the point with our congressional delegation that a growing percentage of Americans do not support this war.

A public demonstration or peace vigil is being planned to take place outside the courthouse on June 7.