San Diego

The Rev. Dorman Owens and 13 members of his fundamentalist Santee church pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges that they violated a court order limiting their picketing at a birth control clinic. San Diego Municipal Court Judge E. Mac Amos fined Owens $200 and the other 13 members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship were fined $100 each. The case stems from the group’s demonstrations at the Birth Control Institute on El Cajon Boulevard. The clinic suffered $80,000 in damage in an arson fire in September--an incident in which Owens has denied any involvement. Owens and the 13 people who pleaded no contest Tuesday were fined $150 and $50 each, respectively, on similar civil charges last month. Church members have been permitted to picket in front of the clinic, but several court orders have specified that the picketers must be moving at all times and that they cannot shout at the clinic’s patrons.