Bail Denied Pastor Indicted in Abortion Clinic Bombing Case

A fundamentalist Baptist preacher arrested and indicted last week in an alleged conspiracy to bomb a San Diego abortion clinic will remain in jail pending his trial on the charges, a federal magistrate decided Thursday.

Granting a request by federal prosecutors, U.S. Magistrate Barry Ted Moskowitz ordered that the Rev. Dorman Owens, leader of the Bible Missionary Fellowship Church in Santee, be detained without bail at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Moskowitz said his ruling was based on “clear and convincing” evidence that Owens has “attempted and will continue to attempt to obstruct justice” by urging other defendants in the case not to cooperate with prosecutors.

The magistrate said there were no conditions he could impose on Owens’ release that would allow government officials to monitor whether the pastor was abiding by a court order that he refrain from contacting potential witnesses in the case.

‘The Only Action’

“Confinement at the MCC appears to be the only action that will disable the defendant” and bar him from opportunities to further influence other defendants or parishioners who may be indicted, Moskowitz said.

Defense attorney Jan Ronis, who had suggested a laundry list of conditions that could accompany Owens’ release on bail, called the ruling “unfortunate” and “disappointing” and said he planned to appeal the decision today.

“Obviously, we don’t agree with it and will exercise our right to another hearing in federal court,” Ronis said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Larry A. Burns said he was “pleased the court accepted our legal position” but felt no “elation.”

Expresses Sympathy

“I feel sorry for Mr. Owens. I feel bad about the predicament he’s in,” Burns said. “And I feel sorry for the members of his congregation that will be hurt by his absence.”

Nonetheless, Burns said he “firmly believes” the pastor would repeat an earlier attempt to allegedly persuade a defendant to lie in an effort to protect fellow church members.

“He did it before and that’s the best evidence we have that he will do it again,” Burns said.

Congregation members and Owens’ relatives, some of whom bowed their heads as the judge announced his decision Thursday, marched from the courthouse with little comment after the hearing. The pastor’s son, Rev. Paul Owens, who has assumed leadership of the 400-member congregation, said he was “disappointed but not shocked” that his father’s release had been denied.

“I’ll agree with what the attorney said, and that is, my father walked right into a baited trap,” Owens said, referring to conversations between his father and another defendant that were tape recorded by the government.

Dorman Owens, 54, and six members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship were arrested a week ago and charged with conspiring to bomb the Family Planning Associates Medical Group on Alvarado Road in July. The church, which was founded in 1971, has a history of picketing family-planning clinics and participating in anti-homosexual demonstrations, where their signs--including one saying, “Do You Have AIDS Yet?”--have drawn widespread attention and angry responses.

The defendants, the youngest of whom is 22, face six charges ranging from conspiracy to bomb and commit arson to manufacturing an explosive device. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Although the charges relate only to the July episode, prosecutors allege that Owens and his followers also conspired to bomb two other organizations--a Planned Parenthood office and Womancare Clinic, a feminist health-care facility in Hillcrest.

According to the indictment, the seven defendants planned the bombing during a series of meetings in May and July of this year. Prosecutors say the defendants bought gunpowder, chemicals and other supplies to build the pipe bomb and gave them to Eric Svelmoe. Authorities alleged that Svelmoe, 32, tested “explosive devices” in several locations before placing the pipe bomb, taped to a gasoline can, on the doorstep of the Family Planning Associates Medical Group.

Arrested Immediately

Svelmoe was arrested immediately after the bomb attempt, which was foiled when the fuse on the device burned out. He has been in custody at MCC ever since.

In a separate indictment, Owens, a square-jawed former truck driver from Fort Worth, Tex., who has lived in San Diego County since 1958, is accused of witness tampering for allegedly urging Svelmoe to lie to prosecutors to protect fellow church members.

Prosecutors say that two jail house conversations they tape recorded between Svelmoe and Owens on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 reveal that the pastor attempted to persuade his parishioner to refuse to cooperate with the government and “make false statements” so as not to implicate two fellow congregation members in the plot. Svelmoe is now cooperating with the government. He has agreed to plead guilty to one count of attempted bombing and arson in return for the dropping of other charges against him.

Burns, the federal prosecutor, charged that Owens, using appeals based on religion and money, attempted to persuade Svelmoe that if he continued his denials of guilt, the government would not have a case against the others who were indicted just a few days later.

Such evidence, Burns argued, was grounds for keeping Owens in custody.

Defense attorney Ronis, however, said the tapes were merely a “conversation between two old friends,” containing nothing that should support the prosecution’s request that Owens be held without bail.

Ronis accumulated a list of family members and seven friends willing to put their houses up as bond for the pastor’s release and said Owens would relinquish his church duties pending a resolution of his trial.

Listened to Tapes

“These conditions would assure that Mr. Owens would not be engaging in any contact with these people the government is so concerned about,” Ronis said.

Moskowitz, who heard arguments from both sides Tuesday but delayed his decision in order to listen to the tape recordings, announced his decision by reading a lengthy statement late in the afternoon to the packed courtroom.

The magistrate said that, in the tapes, Owens “subtly encourages Svelmoe to keep quiet and not implicate others” and therefore that the pastor clearly has attempted to obstruct justice.

Moskowitz said that if Owens were released on bail, he might be expected to “use his unique position as a pastor to encourage other witnesses not to cooperate” with the government. Such “continued persuasion and exhortation” would represent further efforts to interfere with the prosecution, he said.

Because there would be no effective way to monitor Owens’ conversations if he were at home, the magistrate concluded that the only guarantee that no further witness tampering would occur would be his detention by the government.

Found in Contempt

Moreover, Moskowitz noted that Owens in 1984 was twice found in contempt of court and fined for violating restraining orders preventing him from picketing adjacent to certain medical clinics. Such a history, Moskowitz said, indicates his beliefs are “morally based” and that “he is not likely to follow an order of the court, an institution he has said he is at war with.”

The magistrate said he will allow Owens to be released for occasional visits with his attorneys.

Patricia O’Neil, associate director of Womancare, said she was pleased with the judge’s ruling, which the clinic had encouraged.

“I believe he would have continued with all of his activities, because his job was not finished,” O’Neil said. “There were two other clinics targeted in this conspiracy and I have no reason to believe he would not have gone after them.”

The indictment is the product of a three-month joint investigation by the San Diego Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The other defendants are the Rev. Kenneth Neal Felder, 39, the church’s associate pastor; JoAnn Kreipal, 37, of Santee; Christopher Harmon, 24, of Spring Valley, and his wife Robin Harmon, 22, and Randall Sullenger, 35, of El Cajon, and his wife, Cheryl Sullenger, 32.

Randall Sullenger, the last of the defendants to post bail, is due to be released today.