Judge in Abortion Foes’ Trial Criticizes Reiner

An Alhambra judge Thursday chastised Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner for publicly announcing that he will seek 30-day jail sentences for five anti-abortion protesters convicted last month of trespassing at a Rosemead family planning clinic.

Municipal Judge Carlos A. Uranga then ordered three of the defendants to serve the equivalent of five days in County Jail. He delayed sentencing until next month for the two remaining defendants to give their attorney time to file a request for a new trial because of alleged jury misconduct.

“The court is deeply disappointed that the district attorney saw fit to release the sentencing memo two weeks prior to trial sentencing,” Uranga tersely told prosecutors in his third-floor courtroom in Alhambra.

Uranga, who did not elaborate or respond to a request for further comment, was apparently referring to Reiner’s remarks on the sentencing at a Dec. 21 informal press briefing that covered a range of issues.

James Rainboldt, an attorney for the anti-abortion activists, said Reiner’s sentencing recommendation was “directed to the media for a purpose. I think it was to apply pressure on the judge to give a more rigorous sentence.”

Reiner was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday. But a spokesman for his office said it is not uncommon for the district attorney to make known his feelings about a case.

The spokesman, Mike Botula, noted that Reiner had called for a similar 30-day sentence for Zsa Zsa Gabor. “I don’t think you can interpret it as (Reiner) trying to pressure the judge,” Botula said. “He’s simply trying to make his feelings on the matter known.”

At the media briefing, Botula said Reiner indicated that he felt the protesters--who blockaded entrances to the family planning clinic--had gone beyond exercising their right of free speech and infringed on the rights of clinic clients.

At Thursday morning’s hearing, Judge Uranga said he “did not condone the behavior” of the defendants in connection with the Aug. 13 blockade of the Family Planning Associate Medical Group clinic in Rosemead.

But they should not have to serve more jail time than 63 others who earlier pleaded “no contest” to trespassing at the same demonstration, he said. Uranga had given the 63 their choice of five days in jail or 10 days of community service.

The August demonstration was one of a continuing series of protests of Southland family planning clinics as part of Operation Rescue, a national campaign led by Randall Terry, a 29-year-old radical anti-abortionist from New York.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffery Boxer said the five days in jail would not deter the protesters from illegally blockading clinics in the future. Prosecutors originally had offered defendants three years’ probation in exchange for pleas of guilty or “no contest.”

Before she and two other defendants were led away by bailiffs, Whittier homemaker Deborah A. Grumbine told the court that the district attorney’s request for a 30-day jail sentence for “saving babies is repugnant. . . . To punish us with any time in jail for saving a baby’s life is disgusting.”

Grumbine, a 39-year-old mother of seven surviving children, has already served four days in jail after her arrest at a Los Angeles family planning clinic March 25. Also sentenced Thursday were Steven T. Sanders of Riverside and Stephen M. Leininger of Whittier.

Defendants Christopher H. Crossan of Rosemead and Ralph Schellenberger of Westchester will return to court Jan. 26. Rainboldt is expected to ask for a new trial because one juror has claimed she was pressured to cast a guilty vote.