ARTICLES

Kopp in the Dock

Is the FBI Framing a San Francisco Pro-lifer?

By Fred Martinez

James Kopp, known locally for his support of pro-life causes since the mid-80s, now stands accused of the murder of abortion doctor Barnet Slepian. Slepian, 52, was killed in his Amherst home near Buffalo, New York on October 23, 1998. Eleven days after the killing, Kopp fled. CBS news said he escaped to Mexico, and then moved to Ireland in the spring of 2000. After hiding in Ireland for a year, Kopp moved again -- possibly to England and then to France. According to the FBI, Kopp had been living in northwest France for several months with plans on leaving the country when he was arrested on March 29 this year and extradited to the United States.

Kopp co-founded the Free Pregnancy Center in San Francisco in 1984. The center gave free pregnancy tests, educated women on the dangers of abortion, and gave assistance to pregnant women. Others know him from his participation from 1985 to the early 1990s in the Good Friday pro-life procession that goes from St. Martin Church in San Jose to Our Lady of Peace in Santa Clara. Throughout the 90s, Kopp was also involved with Operation Rescue where he participated in clinic sit-ins and chainings to abortion machinery.

One organization suspects Kopp is being framed for the murder. Life Dynamics from Denton, Texas has investigated the case for Kopp's defense since April. Using extradition documents, affidavits, and interviews from witnesses, Life Dynamics president Mark Crutcher has published findings that he believes show the FBI is mishandling the case, perhaps deliberately. According to Crutcher "There are a lot of discrepancies in the evidence against him, a lot of inconsistencies and a lot of bizarre things." These can be accessed on the Life Dynamics website: http://www.ldi.org. "There were serious improprieties and possibly even criminal acts by the FBI and/or the Amherst Police Department," Crutcher said. "We believe we made a powerful case that Mr. Kopp was selected for this persecution, that the FBI planted evidence, that there may have been perjury committed by law enforcement -- including the FBI -- in grand jury testimony."

According to Crutcher, discrepancies between what the Amherst Police said in their extradition documents and what the FBI said in theirs is the reason any information has come to light. The Life Dynamics report says, "If Kopp had been apprehended in the United States, there would have been no extradition documents, these discrepancies would have been secretly worked out before trial, and Kopp would be awaiting lethal injection right now." Some of the questions raised in the report are: How could James Kopp be the James Milton who bought the rifle in Nashville, Tennessee, if on the day it was purchased he was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? The FBI says the gun was purchased by Kopp in Nashville. And, why was the FBI confiscating Kopp's personal belongings less than 24 hours after the crime when they had no evidence that Kopp was involved in the shooting? If the rifle found in Slepian's back yard five months after the crime is indeed the murder weapon, why don't ballistic tests match the bullet that killed Slepian? Life Dynamics says that the Amherst Police Department's inventory of items found at the scene of the crime differs from the FBI's. Life Dynamics believes that accounts of two eyewitnesses the night of Slepian's murder were deliberately left out of the FBI report. After the shooting, the FBI circulated a photograph of Kopp that so poorly resembles him that even his friends couldn't identify him from the photo. Life Dynamics believes the FBI used the photo, not to catch Kopp, but to project an image they wanted the public to have of him.

Bay Area pro-life activist Anthony Ryan is a friend of Kopp who believes he was not capable of the crime. Ryan said, "People like James who devote their whole life to starting crisis pregnancy centers and saving babies and helping mothers don't shoot abortionists." When asked if Kopp had ever spoken of committing violence against abortionists, Ryan said, "Jim Kopp never talked about violence against abortionists because he did not believe in violence. He believed in conversion of hearts. He was totally non-violent. The only violence he was ever associated with is the violence wreaked upon him by the pro-abortion people."

Some believe that a pro-life insider like Kopp would have had the least motive to kill Slepian. Wanderer reporter Paul Likoudis interviewed Bob Behn -- a sidewalk counselor who knew Slepian well, and according to Behn, Slepian was considering converting to Catholicism. The January, 1999 issue of Culture Wars magazine said that Slepian "...was scheduled to address a prolife clergy on October 24, the day after he was gunned down. Perhaps ... there were some that didn't want to hear what he might have said, who have no use for another Norma McCorvey, Bernard Nathanson, or Carol Everett."

Life Dynamics's Mark Crutcher said, "The bottom line is that we don't know if James Kopp is guilty or innocent. What our report makes clear beyond a shadow of a doubt is that the FBI planted evidence, committed perjury in their grand jury testimony, and manufactured the case against James Kopp."

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