Judge Sends Stunned Anti-Abortionists to Jail

Three abortion protesters sentenced to jail in 1989 for chaining themselves together in the waiting room of a San Marcos doctor’s office were returned to jail Friday in a move that shocked both them and their attorneys.

Angela Phelps, 33; Georgina Cheek, 39, and Dean Mesa, 32, were placed in custody in Vista after Municipal Judge Harley Earwicker denied their request for probation, which the three had refused at the time of their sentencing in 1989.

Despite emotional appeals from two defense attorneys, Earwicker refused to budge. At the moment the three were escorted out by marshals, several in the packed gallery broke into tears.

And Nancy Scofield, 42--who, with the three, was arrested in the July 20, 1989, incident but accepted probation to avoid jail--led fellow protesters in singing “God Bless America.”

Attorney Stephen E. Hurst, who represented Phelps and Mesa, said he was stunned by the ruling and claimed it was contrary to what the district attorney’s office had told him would happen.

“This is the first time anybody has expressed to me opposition by the D.A. to probation,” Hurst said angrily. “I’ve talked to their office repeatedly. Private conversations are private conversations, and I will not disclose those. But I am quite surprised by what happened today, and that’s putting it mildly.”

“I am extremely surprised,” said attorney Daniel P. Larkin, who represents Georgina Cheek. “They just put her in custody. That’s totally wrong.”

Charles Bell, the assistant chief of the Vista branch of the district attorney’s office, said no assurances were given Hurst and Larkin.

“I don’t know where they came up with that,” Bell said. “If they talked to somebody, I don’t know who it was. I was the attorney making the appearance. These people did not want probation.

“In 1989, they said, ‘No, we do not want to obey the laws of the state of California. No, we do not want to obey the orders of the court. Yes, we willfully and intentionally went out and violated the law.’ They gave the D.A. and the court no alternative.

“Normally, in cases like this, when somebody says, ‘No, we don’t want probation,’ they get six months. But, in this case, the judge gave four months to one of them (Mesa) and two months to the other two.”

In September, 1989, Phelps and Cheek, both of whom are nurses, were given 60-day sentences for trespassing in the doctor’s office. The women, part of the national Operation Rescue anti-abortion movement, said they had saved six babies’ lives by persuading patients entering the office to not have abortions. Mesa, a former San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who had been arrested twice before for Operation Rescue activities, received a 120-day sentence for trespassing and resisting arrest. The three served 16 days before being released on lawful appeal.

Once the appeals were denied, they ended up back in the courtroom of the judge who sentenced them in the first place--Earwicker--who said at a hearing two weeks ago that probation was doubtful, since none of the three appeared to want it two years ago.

Earwicker said Friday he simply lacked the authority to reconsider probation, since the defendants had not only refused it but also served time and then lost their appeals. He said the option of serving at home, via electronic surveillance was up to the jails, not him.

Larkin argued that a jail sentence posed a hardship for Cheek, a single mother who is “in the process of getting a divorce.” He said family members would see after her 4-year-old child, at least for 72 hours, the time required to request electronic surveillance.

Mesa and Phelps also are parents of small children.

The defendants’ attorneys argued that the district attorney’s office had reversed itself because of political pressure, and Larkin blamed the media.

The attorneys conceded that their clients had broken the law but said abortion protesters are treated differently from others who engage in civil disobedience, such as those in the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements.

Both attorneys said their clients now understand that the methods they chose were wrong and thus deserve probation, even while rejecting it before.

“I’m outraged by this,” said Sylvia Sullivan, spokeswoman for Operation Rescue, who attended Friday’s hearing. “I believe in equal justice under the law, and that’s not what we got. In the eyes of the law, some protesters are more guilty than others.

“People who engage in nuclear or AIDS-related protests get slaps on the wrist. We get jail. You see, our position is not politically correct, so they hit us as hard as they possibly can. All these people were doing was saving babies, but in this society, that’s a crime.

“We look forward to the day when the abortionists--and not us--will be laid away.”

But prosecutor Bell said the protesters were bring treated like any other misdemeanor violator.

“They should have taken probation in 1989,” he said.

But Hurst said the trio refused probation two years ago because they believed that the judge would prohibit them from picketing and other “lawful” protests. He said Scofield accepted probation because no such condition was imposed.

But Scofield said Friday she accepted probation in 1989 because “we had a trip planned back East” to attend a wedding.

Court records indicate that, in 1989, Earwicker offered no jail time; $300 fines for the women and a $500 fine for Mesa; five days of picking up trash on the freeways for the women and 15 days for Mesa; promises to violate no laws, including trespassing or resisting arrest; and an order to stay at least 100 feet away from the San Marcos clinic of Dr. George Kung.

Phelps, Cheek and Mesa were booked into County Jail in Vista Friday afternoon.