THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604060310
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
A federal magistrate sternly cautioned two abortion opponents Friday against trespassing at clinics pending their trial on arson and conspiracy charges involving two clinic fires.
However, U.S. Magistrate James E. Bradberry also told the defendants, Jennifer Patterson Sperle and Clark Ryan Martin, that he wouldn't stop them from lawful picketing. He said he intends to maintain a wall between their right to protest and the charges against them.
``I'm trying to keep them separate. Don't you blend them together,'' he said.
The warning came at a brief arraignment for Sperle, 23, of Wichita, Kan., and Martin, 24, of Norfolk. Bradberry allowed them to remain free on bond, and he set a trial date of June 11.
Sperle and Martin were indicted March 26 on charges of setting fires with unidentified co-conspirators at abortion clinics in Newport News and Norfolk.
Someone used lighter fluid to ignite a traffic flare and pushed it through a mail slot in December 1994 at the Peninsula Medical Center for Women in Newport News. A window was broken and kerosene was ignited in a March 1995 fire at the Tidewater Women's Health Center in Norfolk.
Neither fire caused extensive damage.
Sperle, a former Norfolk resident who moved last year to Kansas, initially was barred by a judge there from associating with other anti-abortion activists. But Bradberry stopped short of such an order.
``I'm going to protect your First Amendment rights, but I expect - I demand their attorneys.
Sperle, who came to court with her three children, is expecting a fourth child. Martin was accompanied by his pregnant wife.
After the hearing, Martin declined to speak with reporters on the advice of his attorney, Richard G. Brydges.
Sperle referred questions to her attorney, Walter B. Dalton.
``We can go home if we want,'' she told one of her children. ``We can still go out and picket - and we will.''
Dalton and Brydges said their clients want a jury trial.
If convicted, the two could face up to 20 years in prison for each fire, plus five years for conspiracy. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Jennifer Patterson Sperle and her children leave court in Newport
News Friday. Sperle and Clark Ryan Martin of Norfolk are defendants
in a federal case against abortion clinic violence.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION by CNB