For 2 in Church : Trek Called Key to Alleged Bomb Plot

In early May, dozens of right-to-life advocates gathered at the Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Atlanta to swap war stories and rededicate themselves to the cause of closing down “abortuaries”--the pro-life tag for clinics that perform legal abortions.

Two of the conventioneers were Jo Ann Kreipal, a member of the Bible Missionary Fellowship, and Cheryl Sullenger, an anti-abortion activist who was soon to join the Santee church.

“When those two women walked out of there, they were loaded for bear,” said a law enforcement source who has investigated the women and other church members involved in the anti-abortion crusade. “It was clear to them that something had to be done.”

By the end of the month, the federal government alleges, a conspiracy was unfolding that ultimately involved the pastor of the fundamental Baptist church, the Rev. Dorman Owens. It allegedly was a conspiracy to bomb an abortion clinic.

Talked With Police

The government began its investigation after a fellow pro-life activist told authorities that a group of church members was planning the bombing. That informant talked with police repeatedly during the following months.

In interviews with The Times, the informant and law enforcement sources described the alleged conspiracy as a well-planned effort in which participants conducted late-night surveillance, obtaining explosive materials, made and tested several bombs and, at least initially, planned the destruction of three San Diego abortion clinics.

Eight members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship were charged:

Eric Everette Svelmoe, 30, an airline mechanic and amateur pilot and son of Philippines missionary parents. Svelmoe was arrested July 27 after placing a bomb--which never went off--at the Family Planning Associates Medical Group. He has pleaded guilty and is expected to be the government’s key witness against his fellow church members.

Long active in the church’s crusade against abortion and homosexuality, Svelmoe lost his pilot’s license for 60 days in 1985 for failing to obtain authorization to fly a banner saying “FAGS REPENT” over the Gay Pride Parade in San Diego.

In 1983, Svelmoe felt the wrath of the church when it became obvious he and his new wife had conceived their first child before their April wedding. Richard J. Boesen, Svelmoe’s attorney, confirmed that the couple was called to stand in front of the group, repent, and then leave the church for a period of months to atone for the indiscretion. Svelmoe and his wife rejoined the church and Boesen said the incident had nothing to do with Svelmoe’s decision to cooperate with the government in the case.

Cheryl Sullenger, 32, and her husband, Randall, 35, until recently resident apartment managers in Spring Valley. Many of the overt acts listed in the federal indictment revolve around Cheryl Sullenger, a longtime activist in the Pro-Life movement. The informant told police that Randall Sullenger, a warehouse worker, conducted moonlight surveillance of possible bombing targets.

Christopher Harmon, 25, and his wife, Robin, 22, also former resident apartment managers in Spring Valley. Originally from Ohio, Robin Harmon allegedly mailed gunpowder from Ohio to San Diego, which was later used to craft a pipe bomb.

The informant told police that Christopher Harmon shared the duties of midnight surveillance at the three targeted clinics. Harmon was convicted of a misdemeanor in 1986 for using a stun gun to assault a man escorting his girlfriend into an abortion clinic.

Kenneth Felder, 39, an associate pastor at the church who has been the director of its Spanish speaking ministry, and Kreipal, 35, a Lamaze teacher and converted Catholic. They allegedly attended meetings with the other defendants in which plans for the bombing were discussed.

Owens, 55, who is also charged with witness tampering after tape recordings were secretly made of jailhouse conversations with Svelmoe.

Of the eight, all but Svelmoe have pleaded innocent to the charges. Owens alone remains in jail. Two judges listened to the tapes and decided that he should be held in jail without bail. Of the defendants, only Kreipal would talk with The Times and only about her beliefs and motivations in the anti-abortion movement, not about the specifics of the indictment.

Bombings have cast a long shadow over the Pro-Life Movement.

Since 1977, there have been 102 arsons, bombings and attempted bombings at abortion clinics nationwide, according to statistics kept by the National Abortion Federation.

The reason for the bombings, said Joseph M. Scheidler, director of the Pro-Life Action League in Chicago, is the frustration some feel over the slow pace of stopping abortion.

The first abortion clinic to be bombed in California was the Birth Control Institute (BCI) in San Diego.

The September, 1984, explosion closed the clinic for two and a half months, causing $150,000 in damages to equipment, said Warren Roberts, BCI director. BCI was bombed for a second time in March, 1985, shortly after it had reopened. Damage was $40,000.

Closed for Good

After reopening briefly, the doors closed for good at the end of 1985 when its medical malpractice insurance shot up from $12,000 a year to more than $200,000, Roberts said.

No one was injured in the BCI bombings and no one has been charged or implicated in the explosions.

Owens said in an interview after one of the BCI bombings that while he did not advocate arson and related tactics, he sympathized with the BCI bombers. He said he could “see a point in the future where such methods may be our only choice.”

Scheidler, considered a guru of the anti-abortion movement, in 1985 published “99 Ways To Stop Abortion,” a handbook for advocates hoping to close abortion clinics. The book that gives directions for using the kind of direct action tactics--promoting conflict, grabbing media attention, holding rallies and marches--that are reminiscent of the 1960s anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

But those tactics aren’t enough for some, said Scheidler, who said that he has interviewed several people accused of bombing clinics in other cases.

‘Very Moral People’

“They are really basically very moral people in the sense that they are so outraged over the killing of the innocent that they want to destroy the killing machine, which is the clinic, the building,” Scheidler said. In May, Scheidler spoke at the conference that Sullenger and Kreipal attended in Atlanta.

Kreipal said she came away from the conference disappointed because other participants--mostly Catholics--were saying that saving unborn children alone could get them into Heaven. Kreipal said believing the right Christian doctrine is the only way to be saved.

Sullenger discussed the conference with the government’s informant. The informant told investigators that Sullenger was impressed by comments made at the conference about several unsuccessful bombing attempts.

“They discussed the mistakes that had been made before, obviously with the implication that if you try it, don’t do these things,” the informant said.

Scheidler told The Times that he eschews violence and never discusses bombing, not even as a joke. He said his address at the Atlanta conference was aimed at cooling off hot-tempered activists and encouraging them to take more “sophisticated” steps than trying to get arrested through civil disobedience.

“There were 200 people who heard my talk,” Scheidler said. “They know that I was militantly opposed to violence. In fact, I was trying to resist the idea that you had to be arrested.”

Cheryl Sullenger had been active in the struggle to stop abortion long before the Atlanta conference. She had organized anti-abortion pickets, as well as published and mailed a newsletter to nearly 1,000 fellow enthusiasts.

The informant said that Sullenger was originally a pacifist who believed that bombing an abortion clinic was wrong.

“We had discussed it previously when she first got involved in the Pro-Life movement,” said the informant. “Some of the bombings had occured at that time. She said, ‘This is wrong. This hurts our cause,’ ” said the informant.

Following the Atlanta conference, however, Sullenger changed her mind, the informant said.

Joined Fellowship

Shortly after the Atlanta conference Sullenger joined the Bible Missionary Fellowship with her husband and two children, ages 5 and 3.

In an August deposition, given in an unrelated civil lawsuit, Sullenger explained why she joined.

“It says in the Bible that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together,” said Sullenger. “I knew that when I was not going to church anywhere, I was outside the will of God. I should be inside the will of God, going to Dorman’s church. His church was most doctrinally agreeable to my family.”

By the end of May the informant was relating the substance of conversations with Sullenger to the police.

In the tape-recorded jail house visit months later, Owens indicated to Svelmoe that he believed Sullenger was the informant’s source all along.

“Cheryl told a lot of big stories and uh, just to make herself look good,” Owens said in the government’s transcript of the tape. “She didn’t know that she was getting herself in trouble at the time.”

Soon after the informant came to them, San Diego undercover officers began shadowing church members and monitoring their activities.

The informant told police that three clinics were targeted: Family Planning Associates on Alvarado Road; Womancare on Sixth Avenue and Planned Parenthood in Pacific Beach.

The informant said Randall Sullenger and Christopher Harmon conducted moonlight surveillance of the clinics. The surveillance lasted for several weeks as they staked-out the clinics in the early morning hours to watch who was entering the premises.

“They wanted to see that nobody was around so no one would get hurt” in the event of a bombing, said the informant.

Five Doctors at Clinic

The stakeouts convinced the group to forget the Planned Parenthood offices. The clinic employed five doctors, many of whom were on 24-hour call, and there was a crowded fast-food restaurant across the street.

The first target became the Family Planning Associates.

The federal government’s indictment alleges the following acts occured as part of the conspiracy:

In July, the group held a meeting at the Santee church. Present were Owens, the Sullengers, Kreipal, Svelmoe and the Harmons. After that meeting, the conspirators began gathering materials for the explosive devices.

On July 9, Svelmoe gave Chris Harmon a magazine with information about explosives. On the same day, the Sullengers bought firecrackers in Mexico to be used as a primer in an explosive device.

Met With Svelmoe

The following day, Cheryl Sullenger met with Svelmoe at the Bible Missionary Fellowship. There, she gave him the firecrackers and a gasoline can.

On July 11, Svelmoe conducted an explosive test near Ocotillo.

The group began building a pipe bomb. On July 15, Randall Sullenger allegedly gave Svelmoe a piece of pipe.

On July 20, Robin Harmon allegedly mailed gunpowder in a package to Cheryl Sullenger from Rittman, Ohio.

The same day that Robin Harmon mailed the powder, Owens hosted a second meeting to discuss the bombing. This time, they met in Owens’ home in El Cajon. Present were Svelmoe and Felder.

Handed Him Gunpowder

On July 22, Cheryl Sullenger met Svelmoe at the church and handed him the gunpowder, wrapped as a gift.

With the transfer of the gunpowder, Svelmoe had everything he needed to make the bomb. He set off practice bombs in the desert near Yuma and in an undeveloped area near Jamul.

On July 26, Cheryl Sullenger gave Svelmoe a woman’s wig to wear as a disguise during the bombing attempt. The Sullengers also collected from Svelmoe the byproducts of the pipe bomb and agreed to destroy them.

On July 27--more than two months after the Atlanta conference--Svelmoe lit the candle of the homemade bomb in front of the Alvarado Road clinic and ran.

The bomb fizzled.

Arrested After Chase

Tipped by the informant, police had been watching the clinic for four nights when Svelmoe showed up. He was arrested after a short car chase, and police found a .357-caliber Magnum on the front seat.

The gun was registered to Dorman Owens’ son, Mark. Federal authorities have since determined that the younger Owens sold the gun to another church member, and that the weapon was not for use in the bombing. A gun charge against Svelmoe, which carries a mandatory five-year penalty, was subsequently dropped.

The alleged conspirators were indicted Nov. 4. The maximum penalty for conviction of conspiracy to bomb is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Days before that, Owens visited Svelmoe twice in the jail. During those discussions, the government says, the preacher tampered with a federal witness when he tried to dissuade Svelmoe from fingering him or others in the bombing plot.

Last Conversation

During the last conversation, the Santee minister sat with his young church member and said, “If there’s any possible way to exclude those others it would sure be . . . phew!”

Later he offered a prayer against those who “do harm,” including “liberals before they totally destroy us.”

“We pray to confuse their hearts and minds and help them to feel defeated and unsure and I pray that you would bring deliverance to everyone involved here,” he said. “We pray for a great miracle . . . .

“We pray that you give us victory and use us in a mighty way to be an example to those around us of what real faith is.”