Anti-Abortion Leader Sobs on Witness Stand

Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, in the dramatic highlight of anti-abortion activists’ trespass trial, broke into sobs on the witness stand Thursday as he described a Good Friday rally in which funeral services were held for an “aborted baby.”

With his voice cracking, Terry sobbed, “That night there were 2,000 of us filing past the dead baby in the coffin . . . .”

Before he could testify further, Los Angeles Municipal Judge Richard A. Paez, who has shown impatience with the defense tactics throughout the three-week trial of five Operation Rescue leaders, said, “Mr. Terry, do you want a break?”

Terry, his body shuddering, gulped, “No, I’ll be OK . . . .”

“You will take a break, Mr. Terry,” retorted Paez, who has been trying to keep a taut rein on what he called the “circus-like atmosphere” of the trial.

Terry, a charismatic church leader from Binghamton, N.Y., has led his “holy army” in a series of nationwide demonstrations at woman’s clinics. He is the last defendant to testify in the trial of five Operation Rescue activists charged with trespassing, conspiracy and resisting arrest during a March 25 protest at a clinic on Westmoreland Avenue. Also charged are Jeff White, 31, of Santa Cruz; Andrew Eppink, 41, of Palmdale; Michael McMonagle, 36, of Philadelphia, and Don Bennette, 36, of Mission Viejo.

During the half-hour recess, Terry remained seated on the witness stand, his back to the courtroom packed with his Bible-carrying supporters. His muffled sobs could be heard, and his shoulders were heaving. He continually wiped at his eyes with a handkerchief.

About 20 minutes later, with Terry still hunched in his seat, Deputy City Atty. Lara Bloomquist rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and said, “At some point doesn’t this become counterproductive?”

When the jury returned, a somber Terry testified that during the rally at a church in Orange County, “It took two hours for the crowd to file by the coffin . . . of the 20-week-old aborted baby.”

The fetus, nicknamed “Baby Choice,” Terry said later outside the courtroom, was used by anti-abortion activists during press conferences and other appearances the week they conducted “rescues” in Southern California.

Throughout the trial, Paez has threatened the defense with contempt for referring to the medical clinics as “killing centers,” and “abortion mills.”

Thursday was no exception. Less than 10 minutes into his testimony describing the sit-in, Terry used the word “aboratorium.”

“OK, Mr. Terry, into my chambers!” Paez said sharply.

Out of earshot of the jury, Paez threatened Terry with contempt if he continued to use words that might “inflame the jury,” court officials said. Terry argued that the words were not used for effect but were “second nature” to him. Terry testified that he had been named in 20 court injunctions nationwide forbidding him from blockading woman’s clinics. “The bottom line is that the injunctions are meaningless and I have given them no more attention than a piece of paper laying in the street.”

In his testimony, Terry said, the arresting officers at the sit-in threw him down into a mud puddle. “Someone put a foot on me and pushed my face into the pavement, and tried to bend back my finger . . . all I could think of was don’t break my finger, because I play the piano . . . then they dragged me to the bus.”

Operation Rescue protesters have argued that their actions at the sit-in are based on the “defense of necessity”--breaking laws in order to prevent harm or “significant evil.” But Paez rejected this defense because abortion is legal in California.