Operation Rescue Upset at Full Jail Terms in Trespassing Cases : Abortion: The group accuses city attorney’s office of clogging court system by refusing to agree on reduced sentences and probation.

Upset over their failure to get reduced jail sentences for 1,050 protesters arrested for blocking women’s clinics, Operation Rescue activists on Monday accused the Los Angeles city attorney’s office of wasting millions of dollars in court costs, clogging the judicial system and prosecuting them because of their religious and political views.

Susan Odom, a national coordinator for the anti-abortion group, said at a news conference at City Hall that the group had offered to have their anti-abortion protesters plead guilty to misdemeanor charges in exchange for jail terms of five to 15 days. However, the city attorney wanted terms of 20 to 60 days for the trespassing offenses, Odom said.

“We came in good faith to reduce the court clogs,” she said. “But the city attorney said we don’t want your good faith. We want your skin.”

The trespassing charges against the more than 1,000 activists stem from three blockades of two local women’s clinics this year and in 1989. Nearly 800 people were arrested during blockades of the Midland Medical Clinic on West Washington Boulevard and Family Planning Associates Clinic on Westmoreland Avenue last year. Another 300 protesters were arrested in April in an incident at the Westmoreland facility.

City Atty. James K. Hahn said the protesters are not being discriminated against and are being treated the same as other demonstrators who are arrested.

“Operation Rescue protesters are the ones clogging the courts,” Hahn said. “They are complaining because they are losing in trials. They thought they could bring the city attorney’s office to its knees and they didn’t think the courts could handle that many cases. But we are and will continue to enforce the law.”

Hahn said his office had attempted to resolve the Operation Rescue cases before they went to trial. However, the big hang-up has been the protesters’ refusal to accept probation and fines from $150 to $250 each and their insistence on trials, he said.

Probation “is the hammer over their heads and would eliminate court clogging,” Hahn said, because the same protesters tend to be arrested repeatedly and brought to court.

But under the probation terms, they would have to agree not to break any laws, including getting arrested for trespassing again for up to three years. If they accepted the probation, offenders would have to serve only the time they spent in jail while waiting to be charged, usually four or five days.

Odom said Operation Rescue protesters have refused probation because it would restrict their participation in “rescues”.

In the last two years, more than 40,000 activists have been arrested nationally in Operation Rescue protests.

Jeff White, of Santa Cruz, who heads the West Coast Operation Rescue effort, began serving a five-month term last week in the Los Angeles County Jail for trespassing. He faces another 120-day term for a similar conviction here.

Last week, 28 other protesters also were convicted here. Deputy city attorneys said they will ask for probation, community service and jail time. Two dozen more are scheduled to go to trial this week.

Court officials have estimated that trials could take months to complete and cost $7 million. Municipal Presiding Judge Jon Mayeda noted Monday “the court system is crowded already. If you put more cases into it, it becomes more crowded. But we are getting ready for them.”

He said that court calendars are being adjusted so that there will not be a last-minute rush to try all the protesters at once when their judicial time limits run out.