WICHITA, Kan. -- A young Mennonite sentenced to two years probation for refusing to register for the draft said he will follow a judge's order to sign up because the judge gave him an option he 'could live with.'
U.S. District Judge Sam Crow Monday put Kendall Warkentine on two years of unsupervised probation for his failure to register and ordered the office in charge of draft registration in Kansas to create a form that provides a section where people can note they are conscientious objectors.
Crow also ordered Warkentine, a 21-year-old Bethel College student, to register. Warkentine said he would comply.
'They've basically given me something that I can live with,' Warkentine said after the judge issued his decision. 'I have no more desire to cause them any more problems. I wish they didn't have to prosecute in the first place.
'I had no other choice. Now they've given me a choice so I will go ahead and register.'
Warkentine, who was greeted outside the courthouse by about 100 supporters, said that choice is that he has the option of checking the 'conscientious objector' portion of the registration form.
The unsupervised probation assigned Warkentine was a far less severe penalty than the monetary fine or five-year prison sentence Crow could have given him.
'I'm concerned that the job of enforcing the selective service law has fallen on the judiciary,' Crow said.
The judge chastised the government, saying the identity of silent non-registering violators has been known to other government agencies but has been withheld from the U.S. attorney general.
Warkentine had claimed it was against his religious belief to register and had turned himself in.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Williams recommended Warkentine not be put in prison, saying he believed Warkentine was sincere in his beliefs. However, he had recommended Warkentine pay the penalty of three years alternative service instead of probation.
Warkentine originally pleaded innocent to the charge, but later pleaded guilty. He and a fellow Bethel student, Charles Robert Epp of Henderson, Neb., were indicted in September by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Kan. Bethel is in the south-central town of about 1,220 people in North Newton.
Attorneys for Epp have filed motions seeking to have the charges dismissed because of selective prosecution by the government. Federal Judge Frank Theis has the motions under advisement, but a trial is scheduled for early April.
