223 Arrested in Abortion Protests Will Go to Trial

More than 220 abortion protesters accused of blockading San Diego-area clinics have declined to settle their cases and instead will go on trial starting next week, causing one judge to say that they are deliberately trying to clog the courts.

Trials for the 223 activists are set to begin next week and run through Aug. 29, but there is a “very real possibility” because of scheduling that the last ones might not even start until mid-September, said James M. Bishop, head deputy city attorney.

“They are using the courts,” San Diego Municipal Court Judge Frederic L. Link said Monday, referring to the activists and the marathon plea-bargaining that went a full day last Thursday, resumed Monday and then ended after just a few hours without resolution.

‘Causing Us Some Problems’

“They are using the courts for their own personal crusade, which is not necessarily wrong, but it’s causing us some problems,” Link said. “But we’ll be able to handle it. We’ll be able to get them all out.”

A hearing was set for Friday morning to handle pretrial requests in the cases, believed to be the first large group of anti-abortion protests to reach San Diego courts at one time. The protesters face a variety of misdemeanor charges in connection with arrests at demonstrations April 8, April 29 and June 10 at clinics.

Bishop said he would ask at Friday’s session that the cases be heard in groups of 10 to 15 defendants. That hearing will not be before Link but before the judge who is on assignment duty Friday at the court.

“That way, we only have to do 20 or 23 trials, which would make it a lot easier on us,” Bishop said.

The city attorney’s office, short on lawyers because of budget restrictions, has assigned eight deputies to handle the protesters’ cases, Bishop said.

“If need be, we’ll have to put more on the case,” he said. “But the bottom line is we will not be prosecuting consumer fraud and drunk-driving cases--those kinds of things--while this stuff goes on.”

Los Angeles lawyer Gregory J. Anthony, the lead attorney for the protesters, said he will oppose consolidation.

“The way I read that is they want to shoot this through as fast as they can, and I guess I understand that to a certain extent,” Anthony said. “But that motivation has to be tempered by the substantive and procedural rights, the due process rights, of individual defendants.”

Anthony also said the notion that his clients sought to clog the courts is not true.

“It’s a part of the reality of living in a pluralistic society that people of conscience will be criticized for what they do,” he said. “I respect people who say that (clogging the courts is an objective). That’s their opinion. But I would encourage anyone, before they jump to those conclusions, to look closer at who these people are,” he said, calling the activists “good people, middle-of-the-road people, who respect this society.”

The plea-bargaining talks broke down after five protesters indicated that they were willing to settle, but the city attorney’s office said settlement was an all-or-nothing deal, Link said.

There was no change Monday in the charges facing the protesters, which include trespass, failing to disperse, resisting arrest and eight charges of conspiracy, Bishop said.

There are no felony charges, he said.

About 10 to 15 pro-choice advocates again marched and carried signs early Monday morning, as they did last Thursday, on the sidewalk in front of the downtown courthouse. More than 200 anti-abortion activists also gathered last Thursday at the courthouse, but only a few appeared Monday, marshals said.