Suspect in ’98 Slaying of N.Y. Doctor Is Held in France

Police in France seized a man Thursday who is suspected in the 1998 sniper slaying of an upstate New York doctor who performed abortions, ending an international manhunt aided by e-mail traffic and wiretapped conversations among friends, the FBI said Thursday.

James Charles Kopp, charged with killing Barnett Slepian with a single rifle shot as the doctor stood in the kitchen of his home, was arrested without incident in the town of Dinan in northwest France by French police, who had kept him under surveillance for several weeks.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said authorities believe Kopp was preparing to leave France. Kopp has been on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list since June 1999.

The FBI director called Slepian’s murder “a particularly egregious and violent action,” recalling that the well-known obstetrician-gynecologist in the Buffalo, N.Y.,area was killed “in the presence of his four sons and his wife.”

Ashcroft Details Federal Charges

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who briefed reporters with Freeh, said Kopp, 46, faces federal charges of using a firearm in a crime of violence and using deadly force to prevent Slepian from providing abortions. He also faces state charges of second-degree murder.

Ashcroft and Freeh said the federal firearms charge carries a potential death penalty sentence, but they were unable to say whether Kopp would be subject to it. France traditionally has been reluctant to extradite people who are subject to execution.

“We’re just beginning the process of extradition now,” Ashcroft said, adding that the possible sentence is one of several pending legal issues.

“We are committed to bringing Mr. Kopp back to the United States to face these charges,” Ashcroft said. “Violence is not the way to resolve our differences.”

Although Ashcroft personally opposes abortion, he said that the suspect is charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and other statutes and that “I intend to enforce those laws.”

At a news conference in Buffalo, federal and local authorities said that Kopp was seized outside a post office in Dinan, where he had gone to receive a package containing $300 that was mailed from New York.

FBI agents said that, as a fugitive, Kopp had lived in Ireland for about a year, where he did clerical work. He left Ireland on March 12 as police there were searching for him.

“It was getting a little warm in Ireland,” said Hardrich Crawford Jr., the FBI’s agent in charge in Buffalo.

FBI officials also announced the arrest of two New York City residents, Loretta Claire Marra, 37, and John Malvasi, 51, a Brooklyn couple suspected of helping Kopp evade arrest.

Reuters quoted police sources as saying Marra had a receipt in her pocket when arrested for the package Kopp had picked up in France.

Officials said she had known Kopp since at least 1990 and was seen with him as recently as 1997. Wiretapped conversations quoted in the complaint against them referred to a planned visit by Kopp, Reuters said.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn, the pair used the aliases of Ted Barnes and Joyce Maier and communicated with Kopp by speaking in code and writing draft e-mail messages in a Yahoo e-mail account.

By using the “draft” feature, they avoided actually transmitting the messages. The intended recipient could read such messages by signing on to the same account.

Couple Allegedly Discussed Kopp Visit

In wiretaps of the couple’s recent conversations, they are heard talking about sending Kopp money and worrying about what to tell their young son about Kopp, who knew him as “Uncle Jim,” when Kopp came to visit.

In a March 24 conversation, they also discussed whether it was better for Kopp to arrive in New York from Montreal by train or bus, the complaint said.

The pair appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday evening and were being held without bail.

At the time of the Oct. 23, 1998, shooting, Slepian had just returned from Friday night services at a synagogue when the sniper, hiding in his backyard, struck.

Earlier in the week, authorities in the Buffalo area had notified physicians and clinic workers to stay away from windows not covered by curtains or blinds and to be alert for anything they deemed suspicious.

The warning was prompted by the wounding of a doctor near Rochester, N.Y., and three Canadian doctors in similar sniping incidents.

Several months after the killing, authorities discovered a rifle with a scope buried near Slepian’s home that they linked to Kopp. Police also said that, in the weeks before the killing, Kopp’s car was spotted in the neighborhood where the physician lived.

The car was found abandoned in a parking lot at Newark International Airport in New Jersey.

“To say we are pleased is an understatement,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, of Kopp’s capture. “This is a major victory for law enforcement.”

Robert L. Behn, the Buffalo director of Operation Save America, an anti-abortion organization, said, “It is unfortunate he has been found guilty before he has had the trial. That is pretty much standard procedure when pro-life people go to trial.”

But Behn added, “If [Kopp] is guilty of this senseless killing of Dr. Slepian, it would make him pro-choice, not a pro-life person. The pro-life movement is dedicated to the sanctity of all human life, whether it be a doctor who performs abortions or a woman who is killing an unborn child.”

Slepian’s murder was the fifth shooting of an abortion provider in Canada and western New York state since 1993 where the assailant used similar weapons and the victims were shot through a window at home. Law enforcement officials have said Kopp will be questioned in the other shootings as well.

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Jackson reported from Washington and Goldman from New York.