Rev. Owens Gets Jail in Attempted Bombing

The Rev. Dorman Owens was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison in the attempted bombing of a San Diego abortion clinic.

In a federal courtroom filled on one side with members of his Bible Missionary Fellowship and on the other with employees and supporters of the abortion clinics, the Santee pastor said he accepted responsibility for not using his pulpit to stop the bombing conspiracy that was growing inside his church.

The 54-year-old fundamentalist Baptist preacher, somber-faced and wearing a gray suit and maroon tie, read a few lines from an index card he pulled from his pocket.

“I am genuinely sorry for what I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve tried to right every wrong. Now, for my sake and for the sake of my people, I’m asking for mercy and leniency.”

A tape recording of a March 13 sermon was also played for U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam in which Owens admonished his congregation against engaging in similar criminal activity.

“I am devastated by what has happened in the last months and I want to publicly apologize to you for any shame or reproach or sorrow which I have brought upon this church,” he said in the taped sermon.

“You can be sure such a thing will never happen again if it is brought to my attention. Many mistakes have been made and now we need to do all that we can to build back that which has been lost.”

Owens and seven other church members were arrested last year in the attempted bombing. All but one has pleaded guilty.

The government’s key witness was one of the co-defendants, Eric Svelmoe, who last July delivered the explosive device--which did not detonate--to the Family Planning Associates Medical Group on Alvarado Road.

Thomas Warwick, Owens’ defense attorney, said the associate pastor, the Rev. Kenneth Felder, recently left the independent Baptist church, founded his own branch and took six families from Owens’ congregation with him.

Felder, who is the sole defendant to request a jury trial, remains bitter over the whole ordeal, Warwick said. “He believes Pastor Owens should have resigned,” Warwick said.

Warwick said that Owens’ going to prison will create a void in the church’s leadership. The church had grown rapidly in recent years, when two branch churches were established and Owens was able to routinely marshal his congregation to stage protest marches at abortion clinics and gay community events.

“He knows every single person in his flock,” Warwick said. “He knows every single family. He knows their children. He baptized their children. This is a real church family out there, and now, with his being gone, it could potentially destroy his church.”

Owens is expected to report to prison no later than July 11. Warwick said it is likely that Owens will serve his time at a minimum-security federal facility.

Length of Term

Although Owens was given 21 months, it is likely the minister will serve only about 13 months, Warwick said. The attorney noted that Owens already served four months in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center after he was arrested in November and that he could end up serving some of the time in a halfway house.

Owens was given the 21-month sentence on a charge of tampering with a federal witness. According to that indictment, he visited Svelmoe in the Metropolitan Correctional Center and encouraged him not to provide government officials with incriminating evidence against other church members.

Under new federal guidelines, the punishment range for Owens on the tampering charge was 21 to 27 months.

Larry Burns, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the judge that he agreed with a pre-sentence report that recommended 24 months in prison.

“Nobody disputes he has done some good in the past,” Burns said. “No one disputes Pastor Owens is not in need of rehabilitation. No one disputes that Pastor Owens and others in his church will not do anything like this again.”

“But,” Burns added, “it’s also true that Pastor Owens did nothing to stop this. He actually encouraged it.”

The pre-sentence report recommended the stiffer sentence because “the defendant placed himself against the law.”

But Judge Gilliam ordered the 21-month term because he believes Owens has accepted responsibility for his actions. “He did enter a plea of guilty,” the judge said.

The pre-sentence report noted that, during an interview with probation officials, Owens acknowledged meeting with church members who were involved in the bombing conspiracy, but that he shirked any involvement.

“After a short discussion, I told them all that I would have nothing to do with it and did not want to be involved,” Owens is quoted as telling probation officials.

The report said Owens told probation officials that he warned Svelmoe that he “stood alone” in the bombing plans. Owens also said he never really believed that the plan would be executed.

Owens was also charged in a second indictment, that one covering the conspiracy indictment that netted the other church members.

On that charge, the pastor was given a three-year suspended sentence and five years’ probation that begins when he is released from prison on the tampering case. He was ordered to refrain from publicly exercising his freedom-of-speech rights to picket abortion clinics and was handed a penalty assessment of $100.

Another co-defendant, Jo Ann Kreipal, the mother of two, was sentenced Monday to 15 months on the conspiracy indictment. She told the judge that she regretted her actions.

Although acknowledging that she did introduce Svelmoe to the other conspirators, she said that she dropped out of the group before the bomb was placed at the clinic.

“I recognize my part in this crime,” she told the judge. “I’m truly sorry.”

Svelmoe’s Case Continued

Svelmoe was scheduled to be sentenced on Monday, but his case was continued when his attorney, Richard J. Boesen, advised Gilliam that federal prosecutors had “other matters” that they first wanted to discuss with Svelmoe.

Burns agreed that prosecutors want to confer with Svelmoe, but he declined to elaborate. Some law-enforcement officials have said that discussions are under way about the culpability of other church members in the attempted bombing and other bombings.

Patricia O’Neil, associate director of Womancare, a San Diego clinic that in the past was routinely picketed by Owens and his group, attended the sentencing hearing with dozens of her colleagues.

Afterward, she said she was satisfied with the sentence Owens received.

“I think it’s great,” she said. “People need to know the extent of his activities. But I think Mr. Owens owes an apology to the community, not just his church.”

Outside the courtroom, Owens was hugged by parishioners and family members. Several of the women surrounding him were crying. He was hastily escorted by his family through a rear exit.

In the courtroom, his new views against violence to carry out anti-abortion beliefs had been made clear.

“We are avidly against anyone doing any such act,” he said in the tape-recorded sermon. “First of all, it is extremely dangerous in many ways. It endangers life, and we are pro-life.

“Secondly, it does not accomplish the desired effect, which is to save the lives of innocent babies. The women just go somewhere else to have their abortion.

“Thirdly, it brings shame and reproach upon all who are trying to save the lives of babies, whether it be organizations or churches. In the future, if you should hear even a hint of such a thing, please contact an authority immediately. We will personally investigate and stop any future action.”

He ended the sermon in prayer.

“Prayer is the most effective ministry,” he said. “God can do what we cannot. So I would ask for you to continue in prayer.”