CAMBRIA EXPECTED TO QUIT KOPP'S MURDER CASE

Buffalo lawyer Paul J. Cambria Jr. is expected to withdraw, possibly within the next few days, as the lead defense attorney in the James C. Kopp murder case.

According to sources in the legal community, sharp differences of opinion have developed in recent weeks between Cambria and some of Kopp's close friends and advisers over the approach that should be used to defend the accused killer of Dr. Barnett Slepian.

"Paul Cambria wants to defend the case by attacking the evidence, by making the (prosecution) prove its case in court," one source close to the situation told The Buffalo News. "There are people close to Kopp who want to use his trial as a forum for the debate over abortion, and (Cambria) refuses to do it."

Sources in both the legal and law enforcement communities said they believe Cambria will soon ask judges in Erie County Court and federal court to allow him to withdraw from the case.

Kopp, 47, is expected to go to trial sometime next year in Erie County Court in the 1998 sniper slaying of Slepian, an Amherst physician who performed abortions. He also faces related charges in federal court.

Legal sources expect Cambria to be replaced by a new defense team, which is likely to include Bruce A. Barket, a Long Island criminal defense lawyer who represents pro-life defendants including Loretta Marra, a close friend of Kopp's.

Marra and her husband, Dennis Malvasi, face federal charges that they helped Kopp to remain a fugitive after the Slepian murder.

Cambria, during a brief interview, said, "I'm not going to comment on speculation. I'm not going to discuss this."

Barket, contacted at his Long Island law offices, said he would be willing to serve on Kopp's defense team, but only under certain circumstances.

"As of right now, Jim Kopp is represented ably by Paul Cambria. In order for me to become his lawyer, he'd have to indicate he wants me as his attorney and the court would have to approve it," Barket said.

"Philosophically, I don't think there's a big difference between Mr. Kopp and myself. I've met him. He's a gentle and good man. We are both adamantly against abortion. If I could bring some of my skills as a criminal defense lawyer to help him, I'd be glad to do it," Barket said.

When Cambria first agreed to represent Kopp in June 2001, he said he would defend the case "on the evidence" and would never turn the case into a political forum on the ethics of abortion.

Cambria said at the time that he believed he could successfully attack the evidence police gathered, including a gun found buried in a wooded area behind the Slepian home five months after the murder. Cambria noted that he has won acquittals for several accused killers in recent years.

The acquittals included John Tomaino of Wheatfield, found not guilty of his wife's 1990 shooting death; Michael T. Robinson II, a rock musician who was accused in the 1994 fatal beating of a female student from Buffalo State College; Elaine LaDolce of North Tonawanda, accused of killing a learning-disabled man who was found buried in her basement in 1990; and Vladimir Sokolov, a Bulgarian soccer player who was acquitted in March of killing his Buffalo roommate.

"I have talked about (attacking the Kopp evidence) in the past, but right now, I'm not getting into it," Cambria said last week.

Kopp, who is being held without bail in the Erie County Holding Center, has been unavailable to comment since his arrest in March 2001.

Frank J. Clark, Erie County district attorney, said his office will continue to vigorously prosecute the Kopp case regardless of the defense team members.

"There are so many rumors circulating, it's like a different rumor every day. I will not put any credence in any of the rumors about the defense team until I actually see it happen," Clark said. "As prosecutors, we're not going to change our approach, regardless of who is representing Kopp. We continue to prepare for trial."

Clark said he hopes to see the murder trial begin sometime in early 2003, but he acknowledged that some delay would be likely if Kopp does change attorneys.

Clark compared Slepian's slaying to the recent wave of sniper killings that have shocked residents of Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

"Regardless of what happens, there will be no plea deals offered by this office to anything but the maximum charge in the Kopp case. And I can't imagine anything that would make me agree to a plea deal that included anything but the maximum sentence," Clark said.

"I consider this a crime of the worst magnitude. A man was gunned down in his own home, while his family was there. It was an assassination. To me, it's every bit as serious a crime as what is happening down in Washington right now." Nine people have been killed by a sniper in the Washington area; two others have been wounded.

Kopp could face life imprisonment if convicted of second-degree murder in the Slepian slaying.

You do not know these people. Buffalo is a lot less "pro-choice" than you may think. Judge Arcara absolutely despises religious pro-lifers of any religion, having jailed a very holy and thoroughly Novus Ordo priest, Fr. Norman Weslin, for something like six months for saying a rosary on a public sidewalk in apparent violation of the expanded terms of some injunction which, as originally entered, would not have been violated. I don't know whether Father Weslin who lives in Colorado was aware of the changes in the injunction (which cannot be inadvertently violated). Arcara has also jailed Protestant ministers for reading Scripture aloud in his no-religion zone on the public sidewalks. These were not cases of obstructing traffic on the sidewalk but cases of speaking forbidden prayers and Scriptures within a certain radius of the mill.

All that having been said, this article attributes the claim that there is a dispute with Attorney Cambria because friends of the defendant want a forum for witnessing to pro-life views only to an unnamed "source." Given our shield laws, the press may use its imagination as an unnamed source. It is not irrational that someone or several people around Jim Kopp want to turn the case to a public witness but I am very skeptical at this point.

Let me say to you that you are absolutely right to suggest that this case not be confused by being turned into a pro-life witness. There is a time and a place for that and, when a man is facing life imprisonment, that is not the time and the place. Jim Kopp should have the very best available representation by the most competent of counsel. If that is Paul Cambria, fine. It appears that a man who has obtained acquittals such as those listed in the article knows his way around the courthouse. I also remember that O. J.'s DNA lawyer, Barry Schacht, the very best in the country on DNA was volunteering to do this case's DNA work at no cost because he was convinced that the government's case was quite compromised as to the, umm, discovery of the DNA evidence months and months after the fact and after the government had the opportunity to obtain it elsewhere for planting. Let's not forget that we are talking about the Justice Department of Janet Reno, Slick Willie and their tapestry of agendas having nothing to do with justice.

This is not the time for a "movement" lawyer, distracted by every Tom, Dick and Harriet who thinks the case an opportunity to appeal to the jury on this or that or with unrealistic hopes that this is finally the case in which the courts might overturn Roe vs. Wade. This is a cse of second degree homicide under federal law and there is a very dead victoim of such a crime and if Jim Kopp did it and the government proves that, Jim Kopp will be convicted and punished. If he is not guilty or the government fails to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, he must go free. A solid, experienced, capable, professional lawyer skilled in criminal defense or a team of them is what is needed. The lawyer needs to understand that these people are very fine people who will not transgress certain principles which they will be happy to share with counsel, that he will never be asked to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical by them because that is not who they are and that, if there is an acquittal, it will be the single sweetest victory he will ever enjoy or achieve even if he thinks that abortion is a secular sacrament because the case is about second degree homicide not abortion.

I do not know Jim Kopp personally but I had on several occasions represented the young lady, now deceased, whom he had hoped to marry, Amy Boissonneault. That hope was a very level-headed one. I don't know Loretta Marra but I didknow her father, the late professor William Marra, professor emeritus of Philosophy at Fordham, and I do not believe I know Malavasi. I do know a great many of the friends of each. There has never been the slightest indication that Jim Kopp is at all capable of the murder of Dr. Slepian. Rescue people, which includes all three defendants, despise the abomination of abortion. They are the least likely people I know to hate any person personally for abortion or anything else. For the most part, they are spiritually broken over the abortion holocaust and would want nothing more than the conversion of abortionists and their salvation.

Trustworthy news accounts and personal discussions with his acquaintances, indicate that Jim Kopp, not particularly religious in his affluent Lutheran youth (his fault not theirs) was horrified when a paramour aborted their child and so horrified that he vowed celibacy thereafter rather than be party to another pregnancy ending in abortion. He could trust Amy on that score or there is nothing left in this world to trust. She died young of cancer in her thirties and the world is a lot poorer place for the loss.

I wish that Amy were alive to talk to Attorney Cambria. She had friends who are still alive, just as principled and nearly as capable persuaders. They also probably read these threads and know who I am. Please accept what I am writing and communicate through Amy's very close friends to Jim's attorney after consultation with Jim. Trust an attorney like Schacht as well if he is available. Even a heathen like Ayn Rand has noted that your choice in marriage is a reflection of your inner reality. If so, the inner reality of Jim Kopp must be splendid indeed. From second hand sources who I would trust without question, that has always been the uniform reputation of Jim Kopp.

Any damned fool can burn an abortion mill or blow it up or kill an abortionist. It really isn't very difficult and it really isn't very difficult to get away with. However, it isn't morally justified or justifiable either. In the former cases, the actor does not really KNOW that there is no one who will be injured or killed (including police and firemen but also abortion mill personnel). The death of others in such a fashion is not a justice which we are allowed to dispense, most certainly not as private individuals. That our government has totally failed to prevent abortion and even promoted and paid for it with our tax money does not justify the anarchy represented by taking execution or such destruction into our own hands. These matters were intensely discussed in the circles in which Kopp, Marra and Malavasi travelled and absolutely NO ONE justified such behavior even privately.

Someone certainly killed Dr. Slepian and that someone deserves punishment under our laws. And that someone deserves punishment on another level because, in killing Dr. Slepian, who ordinarily may have had many more years to live and to repent and to amend his life (or not as he might see fit) was deprived of those years as his family was deprived of him. This is not just. This is not reasonable. This is not justifiable.

It is the responsibility of the government to bring the utmost diligence, skill and integrity to such an investigation. The government has a higher obligation than the defense. If the government should ever have serious doubt, it is obligated not to go forward with the prosecution. The prosecutors are not allowed ethically to roll the dice to find out whether someone, anyone, can be convicted. They must virtually know that they are right. Prosecutor Clark's remarks towards the end of the article leave us in considerable doubt as to those his bona fides and as to his ability to meet the noble requirements of prosecutorial professionalism.

All the bravado about no plea bargains is politicization for public consumption. He will not accept a plea bargain and I would bet good money that none will be offered whether Jim Kopp were guilty or not. And I repeat that I find it very hard to believe that Kopp is guilty. He is certainly not nuts. He might be foolish if he chooses the wrong strategy.

I meant all of this for you, sinkspur, but also to a number of those who were my clients before I escaped to America.

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