Sanctuary Case Defense Rests After Calling Single Witness

In a surprise move, lawyers for 11 sanctuary movement members charged with conspiring to smuggle aliens into the country rested their defense just two minutes after they opened it Friday, saying prosecutors had failed to prove their case.

The only witness called--U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service Special Agent James Rayburn--was not questioned. Each of 11 defense attorneys stood, one by one, and rested the case for each defendant.

U.S. District Judge Earl H. Carroll expressed surprise, saying he had not known the defense planned to rest. He set a hearing for Tuesday in Phoenix to discuss jury instructions. The trial began on Oct. 22.

Defense attorneys and defendants said afterward that the main reason they decided late Thursday night to rest their cases was the belief that prosecutor Donald M. Reno Jr. had not proved his case.

Several lawyers said they rested because of concern that the jury had been taxed by the length of the trial as well as for the four people under house arrest because they refused to testify. The judge ended the house arrest order Friday because both sides had rested.

The prosecutor presented testimony from 17 witnesses, including a paid government informant and an immigration agent, while four others he called refused to testify and were cited for contempt. The judge refused to allow testimony from another witness.

All charges but the conspiracy count have been dropped against two of the defendants--Nena MacDonald and James Corbett, a Quaker and retired rancher considered a co-founder of the movement.

Movement members say they are aiding people fleeing political persecution and violence in accordance with international and U.S. laws. But the federal government contends that Central Americans entering this country without documentation do so for economic reasons.