Posted on 04/16/2003 6:12:49 PM PDT by Marianne
Abortion foes Loretta C. Marra and Dennis J. Malvasi accepted a plea deal in a New York City courtroom Tuesday that guarantees they will spend no more than five years in prison for helping James C. Kopp while he was a fugitive.
Attorneys for the Brooklyn couple say they will try to persuade the judge that Marra and Malvasi should be granted a substantial downward departure in the federal sentencing guidelines to obtain their early release.
Marra and Malvasi also will make another try for bail while they are awaiting their July 11 sentencing by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon.
The couple reluctantly accepted the plea deal after months of stalled negotiations, their lawyers said. It allowed them to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to help Kopp avoid capture after he murdered Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, an Amherst doctor who performed abortions, in October 1998.
"The government's claim of a major conspiracy is that they sent $300 to James Kopp while he was sick," said Buffalo attorney Thomas J. Eoannou, who represents Malvasi.
Prosecutors contend that Marra and Malvasi were helping Kopp to secretly return to the United States and live with them in a Brooklyn safe house after more than two years on the run in Mexico, Scotland, England, Ireland and France.
Kopp, an anti-abortion activist, fled the country days after the sniper shooting of Slepian.
In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped three additional charges against Marra, 39, and Malvasi, 53. Had they gone to trial and been convicted on all four charges, they would have faced sentences of at least eight years.
"They are obviously hopeful our interpretation of the sentencing guidelines will prevail because they desperately want to be with their children," Eoannou said.
The parents of two young boys, Marra and Malvasi have been jailed since March 2001, when Kopp, now 48, was captured in Dinan, France.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Katz says the government's position is that the defendants should face a prison sentence of 41/4 to 5 years.
In contrast, Bruce A. Barket, Marra's attorney, says the couple should serve no more than 15 to 21 months.
"I don't think this was a good plea deal. It represents the culmination of a number of lies told to Loretta and Jim over a long period of time," Barket said.
The government, Barket said, should offer remuneration to Marra and Malvasi for already serving sentences that go beyond the 21-month maximum he and Eoannou think the couple should serve.
"They should get credit. I wonder if the government is going to pay them for the extra time they've served," Barket said.
In disagreeing with prosecutors, Barket and Eoannou say there is no evidence that Marra and Malvasi had prior knowledge that Kopp planned to murder Slepian or suspected that he was the assassin after the crime occurred.
Kopp, in a November jailhouse interview with The Buffalo News, confessed to killing Slepian, contending that he intended to only wound the doctor to prevent him from performing abortions.
The defense attorneys also contend that reduced sentences are appropriate because their clients are admitting their guilt and previously convinced Kopp to give up his extradition battle and return to the United States a year earlier than he could have.
There is also the element of time off for good behavior in jail, which translates into a total of 108 days for the two years the couple has already served, Eoannou said.
Glenn E. Murray, a pro-choice Buffalo lawyer and friend of Slepian, had a strong reaction to the plea deal.
"Marra and Malvasi are part of an underground terrorist network dedicated to eliminating and intimidating providers of abortion, a constitutional right. I'm not surprised that a plea bargain was entered, but I hope that the court will take into account that they have been the cat's paw of a terrorist network and not show leniency," Murray said.
Amon is expected to schedule a sentencing hearing within a month to allow attorneys for both sides to present arguments on what factors should apply in determining the prison sentences.
"We'll be calling witnesses at the sentencing hearing," Eoannou said.
Barket declined to comment when asked whether Kopp would be one of those witnesses. Barket represented Kopp in his murder trial in Erie County Court last month. He was found guilty of murdering Slepian and is scheduled to be sentenced May 9 by Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico.
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