Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : Former Police Chief Out on Bail Pending Appeal : COURTS

After spending two weeks in jail for trespassing at an abortion clinic, former Santa Ana Police Chief Edward J. Allen was freed from custody pending the outcome of an appeal of his case.

The 78-year-old Allen and co-defendant Ralph A. Buglione, 64, of Garden Grove were released from Orange County Jail while their case is waiting review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Allen said his release came as a surprise. All appeals of the case at the state level had been exhausted.

The two were convicted of trespassing at the Cypress Family Planning Assn. Medical Group on March 28, 1984. Both were involved in a noisy anti-abortion demonstration. Unlike Buglione and Allen, about 100 other protesters remained outside the clinic’s doors.

Buglione and Allen, who was Santa Ana police chief from 1955 to 1972, were sentenced to 120-day sentences. They were offered probation if they would agree not to trespass again at the clinic, but neither man would agree with those terms.