Posted on 06/29/2002 5:11:20 PM PDT by Marianne
BUFFALO, N.Y. - James Charles Kopp, the pro-life rescuer accused of killing Buffalo abortionist Barnett Slepian in October 1998, entered not guilty pleas in two separate courtrooms in Buffalo on June 5 and 6. He entered these pleas immediately upon his return from France. The FBI had nabbed him there a little more than a year ago as he made plans for a secret return from exile in Europe.
His upcoming trial, or trials - it has not been determined if he will be tried in both state and federal courts, or if both, which will have precedence - are probably a year away, as both prosecutors and defense attorney continue their investigations and plot their strategies. Attorneys on both sides are predicting the trial will be a "dogfight."
Kopp's 12 minutes in two courtrooms packed with reporters, surrounded by his attorneys, prosecutors, prison guards, and federal marshals, left this city with a powerful impression his trial will be the most dramatic, and publicized, in the city's history.
Kopp, 47, arrived in Niagara Falls June 5 after an uneventful flight on an FBI jet. Three hours later, he stood "looking more like a meek store clerk than a vicious assassin" - according to The Buffalo News" Dan Herbeck and Gene Warner - before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott, a former city court judge.
In the back pocket of his dark khaki pants, Kopp had a rolled-up copy of the Catholic monthly prayer book, Magnificat. Kopp acknowledged his name with a "yes, sire" when Judge Scott asked him if he was James Charles Kopp, and then let his attorney, Paul J. Cambria, enter his not guilty pleas to the charges as they were read out.
In the state's charges against Kopp, filed by veteran prosecutor and Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark's office, he is accused of second-degree murder. The federal charges, which Cambria has already indicated he will dispute, accuse Kopp of numerous violations of federal laws protecting abortion, including preventing a doctor from exercising his right to commit abortions.
"I don't plan to get into politics with this case or to make any kind of crusade on the abortion issue," Cambria, one of Buffalo's top trial attorneys, told reporters after Kopp's appearance in court. "My top priority is to defend James Kopp against these charges."
But he immediately added that he doesn't think the federal FACE charges are relevant.
"I don't know that the federal courts have any jurisdiction in this case," he said. "From my understanding, that law protects the entrances to abortion clinics. This shooting took place at a home in Amherst. The circumstances may not even fit that particular law."
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Battle, however, countered that Kopp is charged under the FACE Act with "intimidation of abortion providers, and James Kopp is charged under that section."
Among those at Kopp's arraignment was Joseph Roach, a longtime friend of Kopp's from Philadelphia, who insisted that Kopp was incapable of killing Slepian.
"I've known Jim for 14 years, and I know him well," said Roach, a retired banker. "I have been with Jim at nonviolent protests, and I emphasize nonviolent. He is not a violent man. He strongly believes abortion is wrong, but not to the point where he would kill an abortion doctor . . . No way."
Roach, according to the News reporters, "was the only observer in the courtroom who was not with the news media, law enforcement, or somehow associated with the court system.
"Kopp, who wore a grim look on his face during most of his appearance before Scott, broke into a huge smile as he saw Roach standing in back of the courtroom as the proceedings ended."
If the case goes to Federal Court first, it will be heard by Federal District Court Judge Richard Arcara, a Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan who has a record of issuing very favorable rulings in support of abortionists and punitive actions against pro-lifers. At least one of those decisions has been overturned by higher courts.
According to the News, "federal prosecutors and Clark now agree that, from a legal standpoint, it makes the most sense for the case to be tried first in the state courts.
"Battle and his first assistant, Kathleen M. Mehltretter, said they agree with Clark that the case may have double-jeopardy problems if Kopp is first tried in the federal courts. Both the state and federal courts have ruled that putting the same person on trial twice for the same charges is double jeopardy, which is unconstitutional.
"If Kopp were first put on trial on the federal charges and won, prosecutors believe the state courts might refuse to allow him to also face trial in the state courts. But if the case first went to state court - and again, if Kopp won - prosecutors believe the federal courts might allow a second trial.
" 'We're going to move forward with the federal case and the state case against Kopp, in two different courts,' Battle said. 'We hope the state case goes to trial first. But ultimately, Frank Clark and I will have nothing to do with the decision on which case goes to trial first. That will be decided by the judges - based on their calendars, their caseloads. We aren't in a position to tell judges how to schedule cases'."
The Dogfight
In a News report published after Kopp's appearance in State Supreme Court, before Judge Eugene Fahey, Herbeck and Warner offered this preview of the anticipated "dogfights" that will play out in the courtrooms:
"Whenever and wherever the trial is held, it will be a dogfight, promised Cambria, a veteran defense lawyer who is known for his confrontational courtroom style. Cambria said he and [co-counsel Barry] Covert will attack the evidence obtained by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies.
"Kopp's supporters in the pro-life community - who operate a web site for Kopp and are raising money for his defense - claim he is being framed, either by unscrupulous police officials or by people in the pro-choice community.
" 'There are people all over this country who believe he is being framed,' Cambria said. 'I've had letters from priests, business people, professional people from all walks of life, who support him and believe he's innocent.
" 'The prosecution will have a fight on its hands. We can handle whatever is tossed our way.'
"Police did an extraordinary job of investigating the Slepian murder, and Kopp is not being framed, said Clark and U.S. Attorney Michael A. Battle.
"Clark said he believes there is a strong case against Kopp, and he has assigned three prosecutors - Joseph J. Marusak, Jeffrey Hagen, and Steven Meyer - to try the case. Marusak, who heads the prosecution team, is a veteran of more than 50 homicide jury trials.
" 'Yes, it is a dogfight, but I like the dogs I have in this fight,' Clark said.
"Michael S. Taheri, an Amherst trial attorney who teaches criminal defense at the University at Buffalo Law School, said the Kopp case is 'tailor-made' for Cambria. But he also described Marusak as one of the toughest and most experienced prosecutors in Western New York.
" 'Cambria and Barry Covert will attack every single scrap of the prosecution case, and Marusak will be battling back at every turn,' said Taheri. 'If it is tried in state court, it would be the kind of trial that I would send my law students out to watch. It will be a classic confrontation.'
"Taheri predicted that the Russian-made rifle that prosecutors claim was used by Kopp to kill Slepian will become one of the key issues in the case, regardless of where the trial takes place.
"Federal agents and Amherst police, using metal detectors at times, scoured the wooded area behind the Slepian home for days after the murder. They found no murder weapon until returning to the woods for another search on April 8, 1999 - more than five months after the crime.
" ' Paul Cambria will have a field day with the gun, Taheri said. 'He will raise all kinds of questions about why it wasn't found in the earlier searches, questions about the chain of custody, questions about why it was suddenly found all those months later. He will really go after law enforcement on that issue'."
Among other reporters in the courtroom for Kopp's first appearance waas Bill Dunphy of the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, who wanted to catch a glimpse of Kopp, who is also accused of carrying out a shooting spree across Canada, targeting, and, at times, wounding abortionists.
"The supposed sniper stands silent before the judge, his hands clasped lightly together as if handcuffed or in prayer,." Dunphy reported.
"His wrinkled dress shirt and work pants hang loosely on his spare frame. His hair has been chopped short by someone with more enthusiasm than skill. His face is boyish, his eyes behind the oversized glasses have an almost owlish air. He's showing some gray at the temples. On his feet are a pair of blue canvas sneakers - their prison origins betrayed by the lack of laces.
Á magazine (it looks like Magnificat, an American Catholic periodical) is rolled up and jammed in the hip pocket of his pants, for all the world like a comic book some Norman Rockwell kid frantically crammed in his pocket as he gets called before a judge for breaking a window with his baseball.
"Squint and you can imagine a slingshot in the other pocket.
"This could be the Remembrance Day Sniper? The stealthy anti-abortion commando who terrorized abortion providers in Canada for years - wounding three, including Ancaster's Dr. Hugh Short -- before shifting operations to the [United] States? The rifleman whose terror tactics finally turned deadly in October 1998 when he gunned down Amherst obstetrician Dr. Barnett Slepian?
"This wisp of a man is a wily fugitive, hunted by thousands of FBI agents and police in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, England, and France?
"The anti-abortion activist with a $1.3 million bounty on his head? This is Atomic Dog?
" 'You are James Charles Kopp?' District Court Magistrate Hugh Scott said in a clear but friendly baritone.
" 'Yes, sir,' came the barely audible reply. The voice is soft - respectful, even.
"His head tips back and moves slightly, as if scanning the magnificent courtroom, the oak paneling, the high vault of the ceiling, the carvings and plaster moldings. Perhaps he is mentally comparing it to the dozens of courtrooms he's stood in over the past 20 years, the dozens of judges and justices he's answered to. Perhaps he is praying and his eyes are scanning not the courts of man, but the halls of Heaven.
"Or maybe he's just stretching his neck after so many hours in chains on his transatlantic flight."
Maybe they will get lucky again!
The Buffalo News is owned by rabid anti-lifer Warren Buffet, but don't expect them to put that little disclaimer on their subsequent articles.
If he did it, he deserves to be punished (and being jailed in upstate New York in the winter borders on "cruel and unusual punishment" as it is). But first, they need to prove he did it before getting wrapped up in all the abortion-related stuff.
Try it as a murder case first without the political poison and see what happens and then, if needed, come back with other charges if they prove relevant. I'm convinced some folks are going to go to whatever lengths they can to find him guilty because they hate pro-lifers. I'd rather see it tried based on the evidence alone.
the infowarrior
with remarkable facts. A great job by the folks at Life Dynamics. I cannot believe that the government actually wants to try this case.
Then there should be some type of payroll records indicating he worked during that time. Did his employer pay him, and make the proper deductions during that time?
Ummmmm, because there was no reason to suspect them other than the fact that they showed up at the wrong place for a memorial service. I find the concept of the pro-aborts killing Slepian, because he was about to go to the other side, almost hysterically funny. Are good abortion doctors that hard to find?
If they were left out, how did you find out about them. What is the connection to their "hooded figure" and the death of the Dr.? Maybe it was a kid sneaking out of his house to go to a rave.
So he could come back and retrieve it later, and use it again.
It took them 3 days to find it, spaced over a period of five months. There were actually three days of searching. Your "five months" argument is disingenuous. You are trying to make it look like they searched diligently for five months. Being disingenuous is a refuge of a liar.
` See Chandra Levy investigation.
Why would the FIBbies plant a rifle that did not match? They have the bullet, and the rifle, why not make them match?
Could be that he was on a "fringe nut" watch list (if the injuries he has do to abortion protests are true, I'm sure he would be on such a list.) Did the FIBbies look into any other nutcases in the area, or was he the only one (You left this info out)?
Is this relevant to anything? Maybe it's because the Buffalo office is where Elvis parks his flying saucer?
What, you wanted "Glamour Shots?" Which photo was most recent?
Wow, in hundreds, or thousandes, of pages of documentation, you found a clerical error; ain't that something?
I don't know if your guy is guilty, or not. It's not for me to judge. He will face his accusers in front of a jury of his peers, and they will determine his fate.
My overall impression, however, is that your guy stripped a gear 'cause he ain't wound too tight, and shot some people he had a philosophical disagreement with. He'll probably get locked up for it.
P. S. I love how this article is not for the purpose of defending Kopp. Uhhhh...Huhhhh, right.
He was building a fence at the home of a family he was staying with. I generally do not pay wages and do withholding when my guests help clean up the kitchen or take out the trash.
I find the concept of the pro-aborts killing Slepian, because he was about to go to the other side, almost hysterically funny.
It is not necessary for the defense to prove that someone else did it.
Are good abortion doctors that hard to find?
I find that phrase "good abortion doctor" pathetic. First, abortionists are considered bottom feeders by the majority of health care professionals. It takes very little skill to vacuum out a uterus. Second; yes they bottom feeders are getting harder to find, especially outside the urban areas. Glory to God!
Maybe it was a kid sneaking out of his house to go to a rave.
Maybe or maybe not. Sounds like something a good detective, like Columbo, would keep digging into. Seems like a lot of uncurious investigators are on this case.
Why would anyone in his right mind commit a murder, carefully preserve the weapon as well as an assortment of personal items, then bury all of it at the scene of the crime?
So he could come back and retrieve it later, and use it again.
LOL!!! Yeah! That's what serial murderers do. Thrifty lads, they are. Prosecution is going to have a very difficult time, on many levels, with this rifle.
It took them 3 days to find it, spaced over a period of five months. There were actually three days of searching. Your "five months" argument is disingenuous. You are trying to make it look like they searched diligently for five months. Being disingenuous is a refuge of a liar.
Why did the FBI and the APD have to return to the woods on two occasions, five months apart, to find their key evidence against Kopp?
` See Chandra Levy investigation. Talk about disingenuous. I have no idea what was up with the Levy situation. (My gut says that Condit did it.) But her body was dumped in Rock Creek Park, a fairly large piece of real estate. The weapon they are linking to Kopp was very close to the firing position of the shooter.
Please expalin how it could have been overlooked. The prosecution will be asked about all the searches. Hell, I believe Barney Fife would have noticed recently disturbed ground in a suburban neighboorhood, and passed a metal detector over it. And also explain why the shooter would have taken the time to bury it in protective wrap. And why would he bury a cap and fanny pack?
Why was the FBI confiscating Kopp’s personal belongings less than 24 hours after the crime when they had no evidence of any kind that Kopp might have been involved?
Could be that he was on a "fringe nut" watch list (if the injuries he has do to abortion protests are true, I'm sure he would be on such a list.)
There is no doubt that Kopp was on a watch list. He was a very dangerous man who acted as if abortion were really and truly murder. The is the most creative tactician ever, in creating strategies to increase the time that abotion mills can be blockaded, non-violently, to halt the baby murder. The whole purpose of all his actions always were to allow counsellers to speak to mothers and try to dissuade them from killing their children.
Kopp has never been even charged with any act of violence. Better get your facts straight.
Why did FBI agents send Kopp’s personal property to their field office in Buffalo, New York, instead of to the crime lab in Washington, D.C.?
Is relevant to anything?
snip
Uh, generally evidence from a crime scene is analyzed in a crime lab. Last time I checked the FBI lab had not been moved to Buffalo.
This is a slam dunk for the defense vis a vis chain of custody.
Why did the FBI circulate a photograph of Kopp that so poorly resembles him that even his friends couldn’t identify him in the photo?
What, you wanted "Glamour Shots?" Which photo was most recent?
The first photo released, when Kpp was wanted as a "material witness" was the most unflattering image they could find. It fact, it was a mug shot, taken after the police had roughed him up at one of his famous "lock and block" rescues. And the point is, they were more interested in creating the image of a crazed psycho killer, than they were of actually locating him at that time.
Why does the Amherst Police Department’s inventory of items found at the scene of the crime differ from the FBI’s?
Wow, in hundreds, or thousandes, of pages of documentation, you found a clerical error; ain't that something?
If this were all that is wrong about this case, you have a point. But, it is just one more brick in the wall. This is Swiss cheese case.
My overall impression, however, is that your guy stripped a gear 'cause he ain't wound too tight, and shot some people he had a philosophical disagreement with. He'll probably get locked up for it.
You make some points, and I hope to hear your further response. But, Jim Kopp never espoused the ideas of shooting abortionists. The man attended Mass on a daily basis. There is no evidence that he was ever on a firing range. The man has very poor vision. The people who know him best are sure that he could not have done this.
In the pro-life movement, the quickest way to get oneself outcast, is to begin yammering about shooting abortionists. What Jim did was to take non-violent direct action to the ultimate.
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