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TACOMA ? A priest who has spent more than a decade behind bars for breaking federal laws in a stand against nuclear weapons, including at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, was released from prison Tuesday at the U.S. District Courthouse.
The Rev. Steve Kelly was brought across the country by the U.S. Marshals Service from Georgia, where he'd finished prison time for breaking into the East Coast Trident submarine base, to face allegations that he'd violated probation for trespassing onto the Bangor base in March 2017.
Kelly, 72, refused to follow probation requirements for the same reason he's broken into federal properties for more than 25 years: as a matter of conscience.
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In April 2018, he and six others broke into the Kings Bay base, a crime that sent Kelly to prison for a 33-month sentence. But because of the probation violation from the Bangor trespassing, he remained in custody for a 3 1/2-month journey involving quarantines, COVID-19 tests and flights between prisons in Florida, Oklahoma and Nevada before arriving here at the end of March. His release Tuesday comes after more than three years behind bars.
Kelly isn't sure where he'll go next; he's currently staying with fellow Jesuits in the area.
"I'll have to go where the sails are full from the wind," Kelly said.