The president of a national religious organization and five others are on trial in Phoenix a year after they were arrested protesting Arizona’s immigration law and a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The Rev. Peter Morales with the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association is charged with a misdemeanor count of failure to obey an order. He lives in Arvada, Colo., and Salem, Mass.
The other defendants include the leader of a Phoenix-based immigrant-rights group and a UCLA graduate student.
The group is the last of the so-called “human-chain trials.” Dozens of people arrested in downtown Phoenix in July 2010 were charged with blocking a roadway or failing to obey an officer.
A lawyer for those arrested says none of them has gotten serious consequences and many had their cases thrown out.