Ridgway has a long history of battling against various county and state GOP officials and operations. He was stripped of his various party offices two years ago for "disruptive" behavior, said Evans.

Evans said that police would not be called if Ridgway attended central committee meetings or a GOP convention, because Ridgway is not a member of those groups and thus has no right to speak. "Those larger meetings are self-policing," said Evans.

But if he continues to try to disrupt smaller GOP meetings, the police will be called, said Evans.

If Ridgway stops trying to disrupt GOP meetings, then at some time in the future GOP leaders may allow him to work within the party again, said Evans.

"Is this what it has come to?" asked Chamberlain. "You try to attend a (Republican) party meeting and you end up in jail with no bail?"

Evans accused Chamberlain and Ridgway of provoking a confrontation to get their names in the newspapers and make others feel sorry for them.

Evans said unlike an incident several years ago when two arch-conservatives were arrested at the Salt Lake County GOP Convention for trying to pass out unauthorized materials, "this is not a free speech issue at all."

Ridgway or anyone else can pass out materials at any convention "for the rest of their lives — but they can't come into a meeting and disrupt it," said Evans, who added, "This is just so tiresome. We can't get Mike to change his disruptive actions."

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Contributing: Linda Thomson

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com