Howard County police charged eight protesters demonstrating on a roof and water tower at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory near Columbia yesterday with trespass.

The protesters said they were members of the Baltimore Emergency Response Network. The demonstrators were protesting the military contract work at the lab at a time when Baltimore and the state are cutting funds for education, libraries and the poor.

They were released on their own recognizance, pending a March 26 trial in the county District Court.

Charged were: Elizabeth McAlister, 52, of the 1900 block of Park Avenue; Carol A. McKusick, 38, of the 1400 block of Light Street; Max J. Obuszewski, 32, of the 300 block of East 25th Street; George M. Ostensen, 36, of the 1400 block of Light Street; James P. Reale, 32, of the 1900 block of Park Avenue; Gregory I. Boertje, 36, of the 1900 block of Park Avenue; Suzanne H. Hunt, 34, of the 700 block of Belle Terre Avenue; and Michael E. Bardoff, 38, of the 100 block of South Collington Avenue, all in Baltimore.