Posted on 06/07/2002 3:32:59 PM PDT by Marianne
Lynne Slepian got her first look at her husband's accused killer Thursday, as she sat in the front row of a crowded courtroom - no more than 20 feet away from James C. Kopp during his arraignment on a murder charge.
She sat with a victim/witness coordinator from the Erie County district attorney's office as Kopp - heavily guarded by court deputies and wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest - was arraigned before State Supreme Court Justice Eugene M. Fahey.
Lynne Slepian, who was in the home with the couple's four sons when her husband was slain, stared intently at Kopp, but showed little reaction during the brief court proceeding. She made no comment afterward.
"She showed no emotion as she intently scrutinized the man accused of shooting into the kitchen of her home and murdering her husband," said Glenn E. Murray, a family friend and attorney who also represents the local Pro-Choice Network.
"I know it had to be difficult for her to see this man in person for the first time," said District Attorney Frank J. Clark. "None of us can imagine the agony she's been through."
Murray said Mrs. Slepian, who feels her family is under siege by the media, does not wish to be contacted by reporters regarding developments in the Kopp case.
"Her paramount concern is her children, and the delay in prosecuting Kopp has added to her agony," Murray said. "It's tough dealing with four boys when you're a single parent. It's tougher when your husband was murdered. It's even tougher when the prosecution of the man indicted in his murder drags on for years and years.
"Her family will never be the same, but she's dedicated to maintaining as much normalcy as possible for their children."
For the second day in a row, Kopp pleaded not guilty to charges that he hid in a wooded area behind the Slepians' Amherst home and gunned down Dr. Barnett A. Slepian on the night of Oct. 23, 1998. Kopp also pleaded not guilty to federal charges in the case Wednesday.
Kopp's denial of the state murder charge was issued through his attorneys, Paul J. Cambria Jr. and Barry N. Covert. Security at Thursday's State Supreme Court appearance was much more visible than on Wednesday in federal court, where Kopp appeared in casual clothes, with no shackles or bulletproof vest.
The defendant, a thin, pale man who wears thick glasses, looked nervous and said little during the six-minute appearance before Fahey.
Kopp is not expected to go on trial for at least nine months, and it has not yet been decided whether the first trial would be held in state or federal court. It's also unclear whether the trial could be moved elsewhere.
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 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 on Thursday. "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."
The woman who headed the federal investigation of Kopp - former U.S. Attorney Denise E. O'Donnell, now in private practice - said police deserve credit for going back and redoubling their efforts to find the gun.
"I think that people who speculate on the evidence in this case may be surprised down the road, when all the evidence comes out," O'Donnell said. "It is a circumstantial case, but there is some very strong evidence."
When asked about the gun evidence, Cambria said: "I'm not getting into that kind of speculation now, but there are a lot of questions we're going to be raising about that, and other things."
Cambria, whose past clients have included Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, rock musician Marilyn Manson, Laborers Local 91 and dozens of high-profile criminal suspects, declined to comment when asked who is paying Kopp's legal bills, which are expected to be expensive.
"There is no one person paying the legal bill. It's a grass-roots effort. People who support Jim and believe he is innocent are raising the money," Cambria said. "From what I understand, they have received donations from all over the country - anywhere from $5 to $5,000."
Cambria said there is no truth to a rumor circulated in the Buffalo legal community that he was paid $1 million upfront to represent Kopp.
"I have heard that one, and it isn't true," Cambria said. "But the costs of defending a case like this are going to be substantial. You've got cases going in two different courts. You need to hire DNA experts, investigators, support people, expert witnesses. It's a huge undertaking."
Cambria declined to discuss his own fees in the case, saying he never discusses such issues publicly.
Taheri said that, in his opinion, the overall expenses for defending a case like Kopp's could "easily go over $1 million."
"You need two lawyers in the courtroom. You need other lawyers and legal assistants doing support work. You need investigators, and they may have to travel all over the country," Taheri said. "I've had expert witnesses charge me $250 an hour."
In the meantime, authorities are taking every safeguard in protecting Kopp, including the use of handcuffs and the bulletproof vest on Thursday.
"I don't think we could ever explain not taking every precaution possible, if something happened," Erie County Sheriff Patrick Gallivan said. "We made the decision . . . because of the volatility of the (abortion) issue and because of the bombings and other shootings we have seen around the country."
The sheriff said Kopp has his own cell in the county Holding Center, but Kopp is not in isolation. He is housed in an area with other homicide defendants.
Gallivan said he considers Kopp an unusually high-profile prisoner, but added that, so far, no threats have been made to Kopp's safety.
"He'll probably have very little contact with other inmates, but that has more to do with his notoriety," the sheriff said. "We want to make sure he's safe. We can best ensure his safety by keeping him away from other inmates."
Hmmm.....is that to protect me in a robbery in a bad part of town where she's gone to buy cocaine, or to hang around a seedy bar?
Am I missing out on your sarcasm here?
I hope you might take some time to click my link up on post 7.
No traction bump.
Needs ping. Help!
Yes.
And in such a neighborhood, why did it take five months to find/dig up the murder weapon? Line of sight, in such a neighborhood for a clean shot for a sniper are limited.
And it took five months to dig up the rifle that the shooter buried?
Five months?
Why did Kopp run out of the country? Who supported him and how do you know if he is anti-abortion?
Without exception, everyone we talked to who personally knows him, insists that he is an extraordinarily intelligent individual whose approach to decision-making is very analytical and strategic. The point here is not that intelligent people don't commit crimes, but that certain parts of the FBI / APD case make absolutely no sense unless Kopp is a borderline idiot. The fact that he is not, causes some of the evidence against him to seem rather suspicious.
Complete article is linked in post #7
Kopp had been sought as a material witness in Slepian’s killing since the doctor was gunned down with a high-powered rifle in his kitchen last October.
Investigators say new evidence — including a rifle found buried near Slepian’s home last month and a match between hair fibers found near the murder scene and ones from Kopp’s car — have linked him with the case, prompting the murder charge.
Authorities also say Kopp’s 1987 black Chevrolet Cavalier was also spotted in Slepian’s Amherst neighborhood in the weeks before the shooting. The car was recovered in an airport parking lot in Newark, N.J.
In addition to second-degree murder, Kopp will be charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by using deadly force.
Kopp has also been formally labeled a suspect in the shootings of three Canadian doctors who perform abortions.
In total, eight other doctors have been shot at since 1993. Two of them — David Gunn and John Bayard Britton of Pensacola, Fla. — died. Several nurses, receptionists and security officers have also been killed or injured in clinic attacks.
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He was quite an activist.... who used violent force.
Do you have any concept of what "rule of law" means?
Any concept whatsoever?
And does it not seem just a little odd that the murder weapon was unearthed five months after the murder? Odd that they did not notice disturbed ground during the investigation?
There are lots of other things around there that they've dug up. Lots of Indians over at St. Regis are upset about it too!
Yes it is a little odd....just as the Chandra Levy findings are odd.
Odd does not mean incorrect.
Listen, I do not believe the government ever wanted him to be put on trial.
The weapon that they claim Kopp used was bought in Tennessee on a day when he was in DC, per sworn affadavit.
Plus, they can find zero witness who can say that he ever even fired any sort of a weapon. The government has a Swiss cheese case on its hands, and they know it.
To counter your silly comment, I hope he gets away with it, even if he did it.
Not that I condone sniping for abortionists, but let's put it this way; If I saw one bleeding to death on the sidewalk I'd have a lapse of memory when it came to dialing 911.
"Uh ...let's see, what was that number again .... nine something? My sir, you're looking kind of pale there"
Paul Hill nailed one of the guys you named. Paul was probably politically motivated more than anything. The other guy was shot by a madman - no motive in that at all! This last guy near Buffalo is simply an accident. That's why the FBI has had such a difficult time finding evidence - now we might well ask if they have turned to manufacturing it? They've been known to do that in recent times. It's one of the reasons they will be dismantled in a forthcoming reorganization.
There are several hundred women who have been butchered by these guys over the 30 years their practice has been legalized, and then there are the 70+ Right to Life activists murdered by abortionist employees, doctors and activists.
It gets down to literally one abortionist killed by anyone with a pro-life motive versus nearly 300 people murdered by abortionists. (That's not counting the 30 million babies they chopped up, eh!)
Your concern for this one abortionist is pitiful.
More info, please.
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