Biography
Betsy Corner is a landscape architect, peace activist, and longtime war-tax resister from Colrain, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1977, she and her husband Randy Kehler openly withheld federal income taxes and redirected money to programs serving poor people and victims of war. The Internal Revenue Service seized their family home in 1989. Corner, Kehler, and their supporters continued resisting the seizure, and federal marshals arrested the couple when they were evicted on December 3, 1991. Corner was released after agreeing not to reenter the house, while Kehler remained jailed for contempt. Their campaign became the subject of the documentary “An Act of Conscience.”
The July 1, 2011 report individually names Betsy Corner among fifteen women arrested for trespass during the June 30 Vermont Yankee demonstration advocating replacement of nuclear power with solar energy. The women were taken to the Vernon police station, booked and released pending a July 19 court appearance. The court appearance was still prospective, and the report does not document jail admission, a completed whole-day detention period or an eventual court outcome.
The January 2012 Shut It Down report individually names this participant among fourteen women arrested at Vermont Yankee on January 18, 2012 and transported to Vernon police station for booking. Police initially announced unlawful trespass, but no written citations or arraignment dates remained in effect when booking ended; Hattie Nestel’s initially issued February 14 citation was withdrawn pending mailed notices. The Nuclear Resister, contemporary source report 806.
