He was the quiet guy. The one who came to Peace Fresno meetings, always sitting in the same spot, taking notes but never taking part in the discussions. For two months, ending in May, he sat through planning meetings, passed out anti-war fliers and went to rallies. He said his name was Aaron Stokes. When asked about his job, he said he was independently wealthy.
Members of Peace Fresno now say he was Aaron Kilner, an undercover sheriff's detective who died in an off-duty motorcycle accident Aug. 30.
Fresno County Sheriff Richard Pierce would not say whether Kilner attended meetings, but he said Peace Fresno "was not and is not the subject of any investigation by the Fresno County Sheriff's Department."
Pierce said his department "does not have any reports, files, rosters or notes on Peace Fresno or its meetings."
However, in a four-paragraph statement issued Thursday, he defended his department's legal right to send undercover officers to community meetings.
"For the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist activities, the Fresno County Sheriff's Department may visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally."
In a time when issues over security versus personal liberties are at the forefront of a national debate, members of Peace Fresno say an undercover officer at a political meeting brings the controversy close to home.
In a city where the same small group of people belongs to various peace, feed-the-hungry and environmental groups, Peace Fresno is the vocal branch of Fresno liberalism. It organizes peace marches and book sales.
"The idea of anyone in Peace Fresno doing anything illegal is laughable," says their attorney, Catherine Campbell. "They're Unitarian schoolteachers."
It was a schoolteacher who first suspected a member of Peace Fresno was really a Fresno County sheriff's detective. When Kilner died, his picture ran in the newspaper. In the story, the sheriff's department identified the 26-year-old as a member of the anti-terrorism unit.
Camille Russell, then president of Peace Fresno, looked at the grainy picture of the young man with full lips and round eyes and thought she recognized him.
At the next meeting of the community activist group, she passed around the photograph, mimeographed onto plain paper with no other information.
"Don't say anything to anyone else. Just look at this picture, and see if you recognize him," she told about 20 people.
They did. Their questions started: Had the sheriff's department assigned an anti-terrorism officer to Peace Fresno, a group dedicated to nonviolence? Or, as some members suggested, had the young man held a personal interest in the peace movement?
"The first question on everyone's mind was 'a dove in hawk's clothing, or a hawk in dove's clothing?' " said Peace Fresno member Nicholas DeGraff.
Kilner's mother, Debbie, whose maiden name is Stokes, said there was little chance that Kilner was attending Peace Fresno meetings out of personal interest. It wasn't so much his politics — he had won awards from the Young Republicans while a student at Clovis High School — it was his schedule.
Kilner was raising two daughters, Alyssa, 6 and Kayla, 5. He worked many hours of overtime at his job, and whatever free time he had he spent with the girls.
"He would go riding bicycles with them in Woodward Park when I knew he was working all night. He put sleep on the back burner."
Debbie Kilner never knew exactly what organizations her son observed as he couldn't talk about his cases, but she knew he must have been put in situations where he disagreed with the people he watched.
"We asked him, 'How do you do it when your views don't coincide?' And he said, 'The really great thing about this country is that people are allowed to express themselves.' He really strongly believed in that, but he was concerned about the line where opinions become actions."
Kilner was close to his 21-year old brother, Matt, who plans to go to the police academy in January. Matt Kilner said his brother was not attending Peace Fresno meetings on his own time.
"No way. He would have told me," he said. "His main goal was to protect. He was doing his job, going to different organizations. He wasn't out to get anyone. He was really open to people's beliefs, but he was making sure no one crossed over the boundary."
After members of Peace Fresno identified Kilner, they debated among themselves for a month about what to do. Finally they agreed they would have their attorney Campbell send a letter to Pierce asking whether they were being investigated and if so, what was reported.
Pierce's reply that they were not targets has not stopped some people's concerns.
"An undercover agent at the center for nonviolence, even if it's part of another investigation? Does that make me squirm? Yes. Is it illegal? Probably not," said Fresno attorney Patience Milrod.
In July, state attorney general Bill Lockyer told California law enforcement to not collect intelligence on religious or political groups without evidence of criminal activity. But under the federal Homeland Security Act of 2002, intelligence agents can look at acts of civil disobedience and minor law-breaking.
If, as many Peace Fresno members insist, Aaron Kilner was at their meetings, and if, as Pierce says, he was not investigating Peace Fresno, why was he there?
A sheriff's detective expressed frustration that because of the sensitive nature of Kilner's work, the department couldn't say what exactly was being investigated and end the controversy.
It's a secrecy that also frustrates Peace Fresno member DeGraff. "The issue calls to light people being investigated in complete dark and secrecy, and we're supposed to just trust what's going on?
"Academically, we always said this thing could go on. But suddenly it went from academic to a real hard sense that this could happen. This could happen here."
www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/7537174p-8449347c.htmlE-mail this article