Gay marriage protester no stranger to jail system

The Christian missionary who has been touring the state in protest of gay marriage has been arrested several times and was jailed for violating the Freedom of Clinic Entrances Act in Milwaukee, the Ledger Dispatch learned.

Ronald Brock, who visited Amador County two weeks ago in his self-described "Marriage Mobile," was fined for violating the act with two other men for blocking the entrance of the Affiliated Medical Services clinic on Farnell Avenue in Milwaukee on June 4, 1995.

Brock has been arrested more than 80 times and had spent more than three year in jail, according to a 1995 article in the Milwaukee Sentinel. He was one of the first three anti-abortion protesters convicted of violating a federal clinic protection law, the article stated. Brock, Colin Hudson and James Soderna were also fined by federal Judge J.P. Stadtmueller for crossing the line when they tried to stop people from going into the clinic.

"Those abortion clinics are murdering innocent children; we know that's a fact," Brock told the Ledger Dispatch Friday in a phone interview. When asked if he had ever been arrested, Brock said, "Standing up for the laws of the land, I have yet to break the law," and then admitted that "they've arrested me and put me in jail."

Brock said he wasn't sure how many times he had been arrested, but agreed that it was between 80 and 100 times.

"It doesn't surprise me at all," said MaryAnn Lester, an Amador resident who saw Brock's Marriage Mobile when she drove by the Amador County Administration Center June 12. "It justifies my reaction when I saw him. It kind of says so much about what lengths people will go to for their beliefs."

Brock said he was just standing up for "innocent children in the womb."

Brock and his Marriage Mobile, which, much like a transformer, alternates between being a pro-life mobile and anti-same-sex marriage mobile, passed through Amador County two weeks ago. He parked his van in front of the County Administration Center that morning to protest the California Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling last month proclaiming marriage a basic right that shouldn't be withheld for same-sex couples. The Amador County Clerk-Recorder's office received the new marriage certificates in early June and began selling them to the public June 17.

Tico Arnese, Amador County Recorder-Clerk supervisor, said the office has sold four marriage certificates since June 17, but was unable to comment on whether any were to same-sex couples. The office does not perform marriage ceremonies, she said.