SANTA ANA : 40 Plead Not Guilty in Abortion Protest

More than 40 Operation Rescue supporters, including former Tustin Councilman John Kelly, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges related to an April anti-abortion protest in Tustin.

“It’s solidarity, everyone’s sticking together,” said Kelly, who was arrested three days after failing to win reelection to the council.

A July 11 pretrial hearing was set for the majority of the cases, according to John Kuhl, executive officer for the Central Municipal Court.

John Barthrop, attorney for 42 of the cases, said he unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a plea bargain for the defendants. The deputy district attorney handling the cases was out ill on Tuesday, but Barthrop said a representative of the office told him that any deal would include three years’ informal probation.

The defendants are willing to perform community service but do not want to be on informal probation, Barthrop said.

He said the district attorney’s office has also indicated that the demonstrators may be required to pay for some of the police costs related to the demonstration. A Tustin Police Department spokesman has said the four police agencies responding to the protest racked up more than $14,000 in costs.

The protesters were originally charged with criminal trespassing, but the charges were later changed to obstructing a passageway and resisting a peace officer in the discharge of duties, Barthrop said.

The protest occurred on Good Friday outside the Doctors Family Planning Medical Group on Irvine Boulevard. About 350 Operation Rescue supporters blocked the clinic’s three entrances for nine hours.