Anti-abortionists found guilty under racketeering law
A federal jury found that
21 acts of extortion were
used to shut down clinics
By Mike Robinson
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — In an unusual
use of a racketeering law de
signed to fight the mob, a federal
jury ruled Monday that anti-abor
tion protest organizers used
threats and violence to shut
down clinics — a verdict that
could cost the movement mil
lions.
Although the abortion foes
were ordered to pay only about
$258,000, the class-action ruling
opened the door for more claims
by as many as 1,000 clinics
across the country.
“This is the biggest courtroom
defeat for the anti-abortion move
ment ever,” declared Fay Clay
ton, an attorney for the National
Organization for Women, which
filed the lawsuit in 1986.
Defense attorneys said they
will appeal.
The jury found that anti-abor
tion activist Joseph Scheidler
and two associates, Timothy
Murphy and Andrew Scholberg,
engaged in 21 acts of extortion
to shut down clinics. The jury
also found that two anti-abor
tion organizations, the Pro-Life
Action League and Operation
Rescue, were part of the
scheme.
The jury ordered the three ac
tivists and two organizations to
pay $85,926.92 in damages,
which will be tripled under the
racketeering law.
The damages were awarded
to abortion clinics in Milwau
kee and Wilmington, Del., for
security measures required after
violence flared outside their
doors. But a number of other
clinics intend to file for class
action damages under the ver
dict.
“They want to bankrupt us —
there’s no question about that,”
said Scheidler, executive director
of the Pro-Life Action League.
A turning point in the case
came in 1994 when the U.S.
Supreme Court reversed lower
court rulings and gave NOW per
mission to refile the lawsuit un
der the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act. It was
the first nationwide class-action
lawsuit ever filed against the
anti-abortion movement under
RICO.
Congress passed the law in
1970 as a weapon against orga
nized crime, but in recent years
businesses have also become tar
gets of its civil provisions.
Defense attorney Tom Brejcha
said that RICO never should have
been used in the case. “RICO is
terribly flawed, vague and over
broad,” he said.
Abortion-rights forces won a
lawsuit several years ago against
blockade organizers under the
RICO act in Philadelphia. But
Clayton said that verdict was mi
nor by comparison.
U.S. District Judge David Coar
scheduled a hearing for Wednes
day at which he is expected to
discuss a court order to curb vio
lence at clinics.
Coar barred abortion-rights at
torneys from introducing evi
dence that they claimed would
tie the defendants to more than
a decade of bombings and ar
sons at clinics around the coun
try. But he allowed them to tell
jurors of doctors and patients
being grabbed, pushed, struck
with protest signs and threat
ened.
Scheidler and his co-defen
dants denied encouraging vio
lence, saying they couldn’t help
the excesses of a few individu
als.
“We wanted to come out as a
legitimate force in America and
not as racketeers,” Scheidler said.
“There is no honor in being a
racketeer and we’re not racke
teers.”
Feminists were elated by the
decision.
“A jury of six men and women
saw through the thugs’ shameless
attempt to pervert the First
Amendment,” NOW President
Patricia Ireland said.
Medical marijuana club closed down in San Francisco
A sheriff served the court
sanctioned order to shut
down the club, hut said
he opposes it
By Richard Cole
Ttie Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A reluc
tant sheriff shut down San Fran
cisco’s largest medical marijuana
club Monday, as organizers wait
ed in the wings to reopen under
another name.
San Francisco Sheriff Mike
Hennessey served Cannabis
Cultivators Club founder Dennis
Peron with an order to close
down the operation shortly after
1 p.m. and ordered the building
vacated. Peron and his follow
ers cooperated peacefully.
Hennessey made it clear he
personally opposed the court
order initiated by state Attor
ney General Dan Lungren,
whom Peron is opposing in a
David vs. Goliath campaign in
the Republican gubernatorial
primary.
“I support the medicinal mari
juana law in the state of Califor
nia, and it does seem this is an at
tempt to thwart that law,”
Hennessey said.
The sheriff also said he would
not move against the club's suc
cessor agency, the Cannabis
Healing Center, which was open
ing under a new director at the
same site.
“That has nothing to do with
this court order,” Hennessey
said.
Peron started the club four
years ago and was a prime mover
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behind the successful 1996 drive
for the state’s medicinal marijua
na initiative. Monday, he
emerged from the club with his
belongings — including a pot
plant — packed in a cardboard
box.
To shouts of “Peron! Peron!”
from about 75 supporters, the
sometimes emotional activist
said it was time for him to move
on.
"It’s been an honor to lead you
into a more loving and compas
sionate society, and it’s very sad
for me to have this moment in
my life,” Peron said.
Customers of the club were re
lieved that the new cannabis cen
ter was opening apparently un
molested but bitter about the
attempt to shut it down.
“Dennis Peron helped me keep
17 people alive this year,” said
an angry Houston Broglin. “Pot
makes AIDS patients eat. If you
take this away, then you actually
put a lot of people in the
ground.”
A client who identified him
self as Billy emphasized the posi
tive by noting that the new center
was opening.
“All praise to God. It’s still
here,” Billy said. “This is history
in the making.”
Peron noted that he had be
gun his involvement with the
marijuana issue as an AIDS ac
tivist.
“I started it for AIDS patients,
and then cancer patients came to
me, and I said, ‘Sure,’” Peron
said. "Then glaucoma patients
came to me, and then other sick
people came to me, and I began
to realize this was a bigger prob
lem.”
The court order to close
down the club was based on
pot sales to providers, rather
than directly to patients. Peron
called the issue a technicality
that Lungren had seized on, but
took responsibility for the er
ror.
“When I started this, there was
no roadmap. Maybe I made some
mistakes along the way. Who
knew you couldn’t sell to care
givers?” he said.
The new Cannabis Healing
Center is run by Hazel Rodgers
and is posted with notices that
pot can be sold only to patients
and not caregivers.
It's also covered with “Peron
for Governor” posters, pins and
bumper stickers.
Oregon Daily
Summer 1998
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responsible for all bi-weekly issues published during summer term plus our
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or check our web site (click “Employment”) at www.uoregon.edu/~ode.
Don’t delay! Deadline is May 1 and the new editor will be selected May 12.
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committed to a culturally diverse workplace.