Abortion Foes to Harass S.D. Judges : Justice: Religious group plans campaign of calls and protests aimed at homes and offices of judges who ruled against abortion protesters.

A national anti-abortion group affiliated with Operation Rescue has targeted eight judges in San Diego County and 18 others in California for picketing, rallies, protest letters and telephone calls in what they say is the first organized effort to pressure jurists who have ruled against abortion protesters.

The group, known as the Christian Defense Coalition and based in Washington, has distributed more than 500 pieces of mail that list the 26 judges. The coalition, of which Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry is an active member, includes the judges’ work telephone numbers, work addresses, names of those sentenced in abortion protests and a sentencing summary.

Organizers say California is the first of many states whose judges they will identify for protests and was selected because they believe anti-abortion protesters--particularly those in the San Diego area--have been unduly punished.

Terry said the coalition is ready to stage any type of nonviolent protest, including the mass publication of judges’ home addresses and home telephone numbers.

Among San Diego judges, the coalition’s primary target is El Cajon Municipal Judge Larrie Brainard, who sentenced anti-abortion attorney Cyrus Zal to 290 days in jail on contempt-of-court charges last February. Zal began serving his sentence two weeks ago.

Brainard has been the target of repeated protests even before the sentencing. His former home was picketed in May. And his office has been swamped with hundreds of protest letters and telephone calls on Zal’s behalf.

The possibility that he may have to face a new stream of attacks brought about by his appearance on the list does not please him.

“I think it’s an ill-advised tactic,” Brainard said Monday. “These people don’t accept the fact that I’m a minor magistrate expected to uphold the law. Abortion is legal, and that is the fact.”

Besides Brainard, the group has included El Cajon Municipal Judges Richard Bein, Eddie Sturgeon, Elizabeth Riggs and Victor Bianchini. San Diego Municipal Judges John Thompson, Ann Winebrenner and Michael Orfield also are on the list.

The group has targeted nine judges in Los Angeles County and nine in Northern California. All of the judges have sentenced abortion protesters to jail. In many cases, the judges offered probation in plea negotiations, but many of the protesters refused because they would have had to agree to refrain from repeat demonstrations.

Several Los Angeles-area judges interviewed last week said they have noticed an increase in protest telephone calls and letters, some of which included threats to report them to the state Commission on Judicial Performance.

“This is a novelty to me,” said Los Angeles Municipal Judge David S. Milton, who is on the list. “To go so far as to threaten a complaint with the Judicial Performance Commission is unfair.”

It is highly unusual for a political group to try and intimidate a judge once a decision is made, according to Warren Conklin, a San Luis Obispo superior court judge and president of the California Judges Assn.

Conklin said he could not recall a similar protest effort.

“The position of the judiciary is that it’s absolutely inappropriate to target a judge for a decision he or she may have made and subject that judge to harassment,” Conklin said. “A judicial decision is not part of a public give-and-take.”

More than 220 people were arrested in three San Diego-area abortion protests earlier this year. The cases all have been resolved, with most serving either minimal jail sentences, agreeing to probation or accepting public service assignments with anti-abortion groups.

Timothy Duffy, who heads the coalition’s office in Washington, said anti-abortion organizations in California developed the list for a radio broadcast on Christian stations Aug. 14.

The hourlong program, called “With Justice for All,” featured members of various Christian groups and focused on what they believed was unfair treatment of anti-abortion advocates before California judges.

Duffy said the show, broadcast on 50 to 60 stations throughout the state, encouraged callers to phone an 800 number and request the list of judges who they said displayed “outrageous and tyrannical behavior” in dealing with abortion protesters.

“The situation with Brainard was one of the situations that gave us the impetus to forming the coalition,” Duffy said. “Seeing his behavior shocked a lot of people.”

The coalition distributed about 500 copies of the California judge’s list, he said. Duffy said California judges were the first to be targeted, but other such listings will be made in other areas of the country where the coalition spots problems.

Brainard said he was not aware of the list but assumed he already was on some mass-mailing because of the hundreds of phone calls and letters he has received since shortly before Zal’s sentencing.

Although Brainard sentenced Zal in February, anti-abortion protesters still picket outside the El Cajon courthouse nearly every day. Protesters visited his home in May, but Brainard had not lived at that address for about two years. His ex-wife still lives there, he said.

Brainard said he still gets five to a dozen letters each day and several telephone calls, few of which are complimentary. He said protesters are within their legal right to picket him, but he objects to any visits or calls to his home.

“The fear I have is that, while most of these people are decent, there could be a lunatic fringe,” he said.

Brainard said he could not tell if the list had generated a greater volume of calls and letters than before.

Other judges on the list interviewed Monday said they had not received the letters or telephone calls that the listing encouraged.

“Am I on that list?” asked Orfield, who heard the cases of nine protesters, two of whom asked for jail time. “I tried desperately to talk those people out of jail time. All they had to do was refrain from similar activity or to do public service.”

The coalition described Orfield’s courtroom behavior as “manipulative” and said he gave “irrational lectures which expressed his pro-abortion views.”

Orfield said the coalition’s description is inaccurate.

“I kept my mouth shut,” he said. “I didn’t allow long, protracted speeches at the time of sentencing but I didn’t say anything either.”

Winebrenner, who heard the cases of 99 protesters who had been grouped together under three separate abortion clinic protests, “appears more rational towards defendants, reducing jail time and allowing community service with pro-life organizations,” the coalition said.

Told of her appearance on the list, Winebrenner said she understands the protesters’ position.

“They sincerely believe that judges are legislating from the bench,” she said. “They feel judges are giving their own opinions and not granting fair trials.”

The coalition’s list includes nine judges in Los Angeles County. Eight are municipal judges in Los Angeles and one a Van Nuys municipal judge.

Municipal Judge J. Stephen Czuleger, whose name appears on the list, said he has noticed an increase in letters and calls to his office in recent weeks chiding him for sentencing protesters to jail.

“I assumed I was on some sort of list because the calls and mail have picked up in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “They’re all the same tone: they compare my sentences to Nazi Germany and the Nuremberg trails.”

Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, formed the coalition in June with two Florida ministers--the Rev. George Grant of the Coral Ridge Ministries in Ft. Lauderdale and the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Center for Christian Activism in Boca Raton--to fight public officials, including judges, police officers, prosecutors and politicians who they believe have mistreated them.

The group has yet to file its incorporation papers, Terry said, or to fully disclose its membership or board of directors.

“We’ve seen a pattern of tyrannical, godless judges over the past year who either are caving in to pro-aborts or who simply don’t fear God,” Terry said in an interview last week from Operation Rescue’s headquarters in Binghamton, N.Y.

Terry said San Diego is one of the worst areas in the country for abortion protesters.

“The judges in San Diego and Southern California right now are making political prisoners of our people,” he said. “We are preparing a network of churches and Christian organizations for a quick strike because these judges are still accountable to the voting electorate and to God.”

Terry said the coalition is especially angered at Brainard, who cited Zal 20 times for contempt of court during last February’s trial. Zal was defending anti-abortionists who had staged a protest last October at the Family Planning Associates clinic in La Mesa.

In its summation of Brainard, the coalition says he sentenced Zal to more than nine months in jail for “using ‘forbidden’ words or concepts, including ‘God or deity in any form’, ‘abortion’ and ‘killing.’ Over 40 words and concepts were forbidden.” The coalition says Brainard can release Zal any time he wants.

Brainard said the summary is untrue, and that he cannot release Zal. He said the contempt charges had nothing to do with Zal using any particular word, but rather for leading an emotionally-laced line of questioning that bordered on harassment.

“For example, he asked a receptionist in the doctor’s office (of the clinic) on the stand how it felt to have blood on her paycheck,” Brainard said. “He went way beyond using a couple of words. He knew what he could say. He directly violated my court orders.”