Posted on 09/26/2002 2:34:02 PM PDT by Marianne
Government prosecutors took an unusual series of legal actions late Monday, seeking to prevent the case of two pro-life supporters of James C. Kopp from going to trial before a federal judge in Buffalo.
In Buffalo, they filed court papers to drop the charges they filed last year against Loretta Marra and Dennis Malvasi of Brooklyn, who are accused of helping Kopp avoid capture by the FBI after the sniper murder of an Amherst physician.
In New York City, they filed a new, greatly reduced criminal charge against Marra and Malvasi.
Essentially, prosecutors asked to have the case moved from Buffalo to New York City, where it is anticipated that the two defendants would take a plea deal comparable to one that was rejected last month by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
The last-minute legal maneuvers took place as Arcara and his staff were preparing for the scheduled start of jury selection today in the trial of Marra and Malvasi.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen M. Mehltretter said the actions were taken by the government for only one reason - to help win a murder conviction in the Kopp case.
If the Marra and Malvasi case went to trial, Mehltretter said, that would force public disclosures of some of the key witnesses and evidence that the government has gathered in its nearly four-year investigation into the murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian.
Those disclosures, she said, could help Kopp's defense.
"We're not judge-shopping. We're making a strategic decision that, if this case went to trial, it could jeopardize the prosecution of James Kopp," Mehltretter said. "Obtaining a conviction in the murder of Dr. Slepian is the top priority here. The Marra and Malvasi case is only ancillary to the Kopp case."
But some court sources believe Monday's actions were intended mainly as an end-around to take the case away from Arcara. Last month, the judge upset both prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case when he refused to accept what he considered to be a cushy plea deal for the two Brookly activists.
"You can see there is one purpose here," said one lawyer who is familiar with the case, "to take this case away from Dick Arcara."
Arcara's office declined to comment Monday, except to say that jury selection for Marra and Malvasi is still scheduled to begin today. More than 100 local men and women are expected to be screened as potential jurors for a trial that was expected to last at least three weeks.
Marra, 38, is a longtime activist who participated in many abortion protests with Kopp prior to October 1998, when Kopp is accused of hiding in the woods behind Slepian's Amherst home and using a military rifle to kill the abortion provider.
Malvasi, 52, who served prison time for the bombings of abortion clinics in New York City in the 1980s, is Marra's husband. Malvasi was honored by anti-abortion activists at the January 2001 White Rose Banquet in Washington, D.C. The couple has two young children.
The two Brooklyn residents were indicted shortly after Kopp was captured by police in France in late March 2001. Prosecutors filed six felony charges against Marra and Malvasi, accusing them of sending money and information to Kopp while he was a fugitive. They are also charged with planning to allow Kopp to use their home as a "safe house" if he came back to the United States.
Monday, prosecutors said they no longer intend to pursue prosecution of those six charges, which include aiding and abetting a fugitive, obstruction of justice and perjury. They now intend to prosecute Marra and Malvasi for only one felony charge - conspiring to harbor a fugitive.
Marra and Malvasi appeared briefly with their attorneys before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott to answer to the new charge. Both are being held without bail in local jails.
"This is going from a six-count indictment, with two 10-year felonies, to one count, with a five-year maximum," said Thomas Eoannou, Malvasi's attorney. "It's a significant reduction . . . It's a win for Malvasi."
Bruce A. Barket, Marra's attorney, was critical of Arcara. He said the judge was wrong to reject the proposed plea deal last month, and in general, has not treated the two Brooklyn activists fairly.
"Given Judge Arcara's past history with this case, I would not be surprised if he tries to take this case away from the U.S. Attorney's office, and appoint a special prosecutor to handle it," Barket said. "I am afraid that is what he is going to do. He has done that in the past, in at least one case involving a pro-life demonstrator."
In court papers seeking the dismissal of charges against Malvasi and Marra, Mehltretter said a prosecutor "must remain free to exercise judgment in determining what prosecutions will best serve the public interest."
If the Marra and Malvasi case goes to trial, she said, "the government would be required to submit evidence which exposes critical Kopp witnesses to the public and defendant Kopp."
Mehltretter said government attorneys are worried that the Kopp witnesses might be subjected to "harassment . . . by the media and the public."
Kopp has denied killing Slepian. His case is not expected to go to trial until sometime next year.
What appears to be the case here is that Arcara said he would not accept a plea bargain from the lesser defendants Marra and Malavasi unless he were free to impose maximum sentences. I do suspect, hoewever, that the prosecution may not trust a Buffalo jury to convict any of the defendants and may try to move Kopp's trial to New York City to get a sufficiently biased jury. We shall see. I do not believe that Kopp killed Dr. Slepian. He is not a head case and he is reputedly a turbo Catholic convert who has not even Rescued in many years.
Should Pro-Life jurors in this case enact Jury Nullification if they do believe the defendant actually killed the abortionist?
Buffalo is Catholic, but it's also very NYS Democrat.
Without any statistics to back myself up, my feeling is that it's like a lot of the country -- up for grabs.
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