S.D. Abortion Foes Agree to Plea Bargains

SAN DIEGO —  Signaling a marked strategy change among San Diego anti-abortion activists, 30 protesters arrested on charges stemming from three demonstrations last spring agreed Thursday to a plea bargain rather than going to trial.

Under a complicated procedure, the activists essentially decided to let Municipal Judge Ann P. Winebrenner find them guilty of two misdemeanor charges, trespass and failure to disperse, in connection with protests April 8, April 29 and June 10 at San Diego-area clinics.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges--such as resisting arrest--stemming from the protests. An added benefit for protesters is that it keeps alive for imminent appeal their contention that the demonstrations were necessary to prevent abortions, a claim they would have been barred from presenting at trial, defense attorney Cyrus Zal said.

The deal marked a significant departure from the strategy most of the activists--many affiliated with the militant group Operation Rescue--have pursued for months in San Diego County courts. Usually, protesters simply fought the charges against them through jury trials, in some cases causing long backlogs in already crowded Municipal Court calendars.

The turnabout in court strategy matched dramatic alterations evident in the style and form of the most recent abortion protests in San Diego. Like the change in approach to the protests themselves, the bargain was prompted largely by overwhelming losses in those jury trials, Zal said.

“Well, you know we’re always changing strategy,” Zal said. “If you don’t change strategy, whether you’re in a war or a battle or a lawsuit, you become predictable, and the other side can lay a trap for you. We are always looking to change strategy when the other side meets our current strategy. So we are changing strategy.”

In recent weeks, abortion foes have organized two protests differently from the demonstrations staged last year and most recently as last January. The past pattern saw demonstrators rally at one clinic, where police would arrest dozens of them.

Last Saturday, organizers staged demonstrations at five clinics in five hours. Two people were arrested.

On Feb. 11, thousands of activists lined up along Harbor Drive, holding signs and forming what they called a “life chain.”

“If we can achieve the same goals and objectives without arrest, we don’t want to put the police and courts through all this unnecessary work,” Zal said. “If we can save babies without getting arrested, that’s our strategy. And that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”

Prosecutors agreed that the new tactics of the anti-abortion protesters can be traced primarily to the string of court losses they have suffered. Of the hundreds of protesters who have gone to trial in the county over recent months, Zal estimated that only a “handful” have been acquitted.

The San Diego city attorney’s office, which has prosecuted misdemeanor charges arising from protests in the city limits, has won all its cases, said James M. Bishop, head deputy city attorney. The San Diego County district attorney’s office has successfully prosecuted scores of protest-related cases in El Cajon.

“I think what has happened is that these individuals have gotten the message that breaking laws is not the answer,” Bishop said.

Prosecutors also speculated that the new posture could be attributable to other factors, including a potential 290-day jail term facing lawyer Zal and fiscal uncertainty facing Operation Rescue.

Meanwhile, the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego is weighing a contempt sentence an El Cajon judge imposed against Zal last month for repeatedly ignoring orders not to discuss abortion during a trial at which Zal represented several anti-abortion activists.

Judge Larrie R. Brainard sentenced Zal Feb. 2 to 90 days in County Jail and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine after citing him for contempt of court 20 times.

The sentence against Zal could reach 290 days because the lawyer told the judge he couldn’t afford the $10,000 fine--and would not pay it if he could. So Brainard gave him the option of paying it off at $50 for each additional day in jail, or 200 days.

The bargain struck Thursday was the same deal the activists were offered--but rejected--two months ago, said Scott C. Taylor, the deputy city attorney handling the cases.

Zal and Winebrenner settled on the deal after Winebrenner barred the activists from using various defenses, including the contention that the protests were necessary as a lesser evil than abortions.

Under the procedure, which attorneys call a “slow plea,” the attorneys expected Winebrenner to find the activists guilty of trespass and failure to disperse, which she did in court Thursday afternoon.

Winebrenner offered the protesters three sentencing options--25 to 35 days in jail, 15 to 20 days public work service--such as working on a highway cleanup crew--or three years’ probation. A condition of the probation was a promise to refrain from similar protests for three years.

Of the 30 protesters, 16 chose jail, 9 took public work service and 5 opted for probation. Among those choosing probation was James Holman, 43, the publisher of the Reader, a San Diego weekly newspaper.

Holman served 15 days in county jails after being sentenced to a 30-day term Feb. 2 for a trespassing conviction stemming from a protest last Oct. 21 at a suburban San Diego clinic. He said he opted for probation this time--he took part in the April 8 and 29 protests--because he didn’t want to leave his pregnant wife.

Prosecutors actually opposed the deal reached Thursday because they sought the maximum jail term--180 days on each of the two counts--or the protesters’ promise to refrain from similar demonstrations, Taylor said.

Nevertheless, except for one case, the bargain brought to a close the cases stemming from the April and June protests, in which more than 220 people were arrested. That one case, against Paul A. Guy, is scheduled to go to trial May 21, Taylor said.