The State : Jail Term for Pipe Bombing

A militant member of a Baptist church in the San Diego County community of Santee was sentenced to 179 days in jail, a four-year suspended sentence and five years’ probation for planting a pipe bomb in a San Diego abortion clinic. Eric Svelmoe, a member of Dorman Owens Bible Missionary Fellowship, admitted planting the device on July 27, 1987, at the door of the Family Planning Associates Medical Group facility. The bomb failed to explode after its fuse fizzled out, and Svelmoe was arrested a short time later. Svelmoe, 30, of El Cajon, cooperated with police and investigators, and prosecutors argued in San Diego federal court that he should receive a lighter sentence than his co-conspirators, who all pleaded guilty to charges relating to the bombing plot. The Rev. Dorman Owens was sentenced to 21 months in prison for witness tampering after Svelmoe surreptitiously recorded him as he apparently suggested that Svelmoe should not implicate others.