Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico barred television cameras from Kopp's trial, but allowed The Buffalo News limited photo coverage. Attorney Joseph M. Finnerty, counsel to The News, argued that case. Posted on 02/08/2003 5:42:49 PM PST by Marianne
An anti-abortion activist admitted Friday that she drove James C. Kopp to Mexico in late 1998 when he was wanted for questioning in the murder of Dr. Barnett A. Slepian.
Jennifer Rock, 32, said at a court hearing that she helped Kopp who now admits he shot the Amherst abortion provider because she was sure he was the victim of a U.S. Justice Department setup.
"I believed he was innocent," said Rock, who came to know Kopp through the right-to-life movement.
That trip to Mexico started Kopp on a 52-month trek as a fugitive in England, Scotland, Ireland and France. And it launched an international manhunt that ended in late March 2001, when French police captured Kopp in a medieval village in the French province of Brittany.
Rock's admission ended one of the big remaining mysteries about the Slepian killing: Who helped Kopp slip out of the United States?
The revelation was just one of many developments in the Kopp case Friday. In addition:
Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D'Amico barred television cameras from Kopp's trial, but allowed The Buffalo News limited photo coverage. Attorney Joseph M. Finnerty, counsel to The News, argued that case.
One of Kopp's attorneys said Kopp planned to take the stand in the case to explain why he shot Slepian.
D'Amico said jury selection in the case will begin March 3, with testimony set to begin March 17.
Prosecutors flew Rock to Buffalo for an evidence-suppression hearing Friday. She identified herself as a business consultant and a pro-life activist, but did not disclose where she is living now.
With Kopp smiling at the defense table as she testified, Rock told the judge that by early November 1998, she knew that Kopp was wanted on a material witness warrant in the Slepian case. But at that time, she did not believe he was involved in the Amherst physician's murder.
And so, when Kopp telephoned her on Nov. 4, 1998, she was willing to help him.
Rock testified that Kopp told her "he was in trouble," but told her not to believe anything she read in the newspapers linking him to the Slepian murder. He then asked her to let him use money they had expected to use to jointly buy a Jersey City apartment building.
She promptly withdrew $7,226 she had been holding for him in a bank and made him a fake West Virginia driver's license.
A day later, on Nov. 5, Rock met Kopp in a White Plains shopping mall.
"I know you're innocent," she told him.
Kopp "may have nodded" but otherwise did not respond, she testified.
Rock told the court she talked Kopp out of fleeing the country from the Newark, N.J., airport - where he abandoned his car - because she felt it was "too risky for him."
She then persuaded Kopp to let her drive him to Mexico instead.
During the three-day drive, which ended at the Nuevo Laredo airport in northern Mexico, Rock said Kopp who usually wore a beard - was clean-shaven. She also said he purchased reddish-blond hair dye and changed his hair color while on the trip.
Kopp and Rock never discussed the Slepian murder during the drive, she testified.
"I thought it would be insulting to question his character," she said.
She never asked why he was fleeing, either.
"I didn't want to know," Rock testified, given that she knew law enforcement might someday want to question her about her links with Kopp.
Rock testified with immunity from prosecution. She previously testified with immunity before federal and Erie County grand juries in the Kopp case.
One of Kopp's lawyers, John V. Elmore, cross-examined Rock and got her to acknowledge that she felt the FBI had "pressured" her to testify against Kopp.
Elmore was upset at D'Amico's key ruling of the day, in which he barred television cameras from the courtroom during Kopp's upcoming trial on state murder charges. However, Elmore said he would not appeal the decision.
Citing the State Legislature's decision six years ago not to renew a decadelong experiment that put cameras in courtrooms, D'Amico upheld the constitutionality of the state's 50-year-old ban on television-camera court coverage.
But D'Amico said trial judges have discretion to allow some cameras in the courtroom, which means he can give Buffalo News photographers limited access.
D'Amico said he will speak with attorneys for The News, Kopp and prosecutors before issuing an order that will allow still photography with some restrictions.
Federal prosecutors - who will try Kopp separately at a later date - opposed television and still-camera coverage of the state trial.
Kopp's attorneys argued for television coverage but against still-camera coverage. Kopp wanted television cameras to be there when he testifies in the trial, said Elmore, his attorney.
Kopp "wants to take the stand to tell the reason" he shot Slepian, Elmore said.
After years of maintaining his innocence, Kopp told two Buffalo News reporters in November that he had shot Slepian, arguing that he meant only to wound the doctor to stop him from performing abortions.
Elmore said Kopp had wanted television cameras to film his jailhouse confession, but sheriff's department officials refused to permit a camera crew to film the session in the county Holding Center.
Before court broke Friday, the judge told Elmore and Deputy District Attorney Joseph J. Marusak that he expects to begin questioning about 100 prospective jurors March 3.
D'Amico told the attorneys to be ready to begin personally questioning prospective jurors March 12.
I have no sympathy for this guy, or his naieve accomplice. Abortion is murder, but that doesn't excuse their actions.
If she hadn't gotten immunity, she'd be sitting behind bars for aiding his escape. Her deal was her testimony in exchange for her not becoming a jailbird.
We know that about the OTHER "religion of peace."
The MO of the Slepian killing as well as the supposedly associated shootings in nearby Canada, are virtually identical to the technique Muhammad used in the DC suburbs.
Koop has admitted to absolutely nothing that wasn't published in newspapers. It's just a matter of time until the FBI is forced to backdown on the allegations and charges in his case and point to the right shooter, Mr. Muhammad.
In the meantime, though, the FBI and their little buddies in Justice Department are going to keep prosecuting these people who really didn't commit any crimes just to "warn" other Right to Life folks.
Your point being?
Preventing death to thousands of children means nothing to you I suppose - probably an animal rights activist too.
So you agree with killing abortion providers. Rigth?
Posted on 11/20/2002 8:13 AM CST by KeyBored
KOPP CONFESSES
Tells News in jail interview that outrage about abortion prompted shooting of doctor
By LOU MICHEL and DAN HERBECK- Copyright 2002, The Buffalo News
James C. Kopp has admitted he shot and killed Dr. Barnett A. Slepian. Kopp confessed to The Buffalo News that he planned the sniper shooting for a year, hid in the woods behind Slepian's Amherst home and fired the shot that killed the abortion provider.
In a jailhouse interview, Kopp said he scouted Slepian's neighborhood several times and also considered shooting other local doctors who provided abortions before he killed Slepian on Oct.
<snip>
True where Slepian was killed.... was it Buffalo?
In LA, NYC and other crowded places murders are prioritized. BTW>I just had a laugh reading your comments about lentils and the "Magic Bus" to Iraq.
And that article about the lentil eaters--I really couldn't stop laughing at the fools. And I do like O'Keefe being a Man Without A Country. (I'm getting the giggles over it just writing about it.)
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