PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF THE COLUMBIA/WILLAMETTE, INC.; ET AL.,
Plaintiffs,
v.
AMERICAN COALITION OF LIFE ACTIVISTS; ET AL.,
Defendants.
Civil No 95-1671-JO
FILED: 1999 FEB 25 A 9:02
ORDER AND PERMANENT INJUNCTION
1. The "Deadly Dozen" Poster (Trial Exhibit 1) is a true threat to bodily harm, assault or kill one or more of the plaintiffs.
2. The Poster of Dr. Robert Crist (Trial Exhibit 5) is a true threat to bodily harm, assault or kill one or more of the plaintiffs.
3. The "Nuremberg Files" (Trial Exhibits 7, 9) are a true threat to bodily harm, assault or kill one or more of the plaintiffs.
4. An a result of the defendants' issuance of these threats, plaintiffs have undertaken a variety of security measures in order to ensure their safety.
5. Based upon the evidence admitted at trial, the Court finds that plaintiffs remain threatened by the defendants' threats, and thus have no adequate remedy at law.
I conclude from my independent review of the evidence produced at trial that plaintiffs have proven by clear and convincing evidence that each defendant, acting independently and as a co-conspirator, prepared, published and disseminated the "Deadly Dozen" Poster, the Poster of Dr. Robert Crist and the "Nuremberg Files" with specific intent and malice in a blatant and illegal communication of true threats to kill, assault or do bodily harm to each of the plaintiffs and with the specific intent to interfere with or intimidate the plaintiffs from engaging in legal medical practices and procedures.[1]
I totally reject the defendants' attempts to justify their actions as an expression of opinion or as a legitimate and lawful exercise of free speech in order to dissuade the plaintiffs from engaging in providing abortion services.
The law requires a higher level of scrutiny and proof for an injunction involving speech than for an award of damages for violation of a statute. [See Madsen v. Women's Health Center, 512 U.S., 753 (1994). I find the actions of the defendants in preparing, publishing and disseminating these true threats objectively and subjectively[2] were not protected speech under the First Amendment. Therefore, the Court issues the following permanent injunction against each defendant, their agents and those in active concert or participation with them, and specifically against Paul DeParrie, an employee and agent of defendant Advocates for Life Ministries, who conspired with Neal Horsley of Carrollton, Georgia, to provide the specific information for the Nuremberg Files and who thereafter obstructed justice by destroying or assisting in concealing the materials he provided to Horsley to convert into true threats on his web site.
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED AS FOLLOWS:
1. Under the equitable powers of this Court and the Court's authority granted under the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act ("FACE"), 18 U.S.C. Section 248, defendants AMERICAN COALITION OF LIFE ACTIVISTS, ADVOCATES FOR LIFE MINISTRIES, MICHAEL BRAY, ANDREW BURNETT, DAVID CRANE, MICHAEL DODDS, TIMOTHY PAUL DRESTE, JOSEPH L. FOREMAN, CHARLES ROY MCMILLAN, BRUCE EVAN MURCH, CATHERINE RAMEY, DAWN MARIE STOVER, DONALD TRESHMAN and CHARLES WYSONG (collectively "defendants"), and their agents and all persons in active concert or participation with any of them who receive actual notice of this Order and Permanent Injunction or the "Notice" attached as Exhibit A to this Order, are hereby immediately and permanently ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from committing any of the following acts or aiding, abetting, directing or facilitating others to commit or conspiring with any others to commit the following acts:
(a) Threatening, with the specific intent to do so, Dr. Robert Crist, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Elizabeth Newhall, Dr. James Newhall, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc., Portland Feminist Women's Health Center, doing business as All Women's Health Services, or any of them, or any of their family members, officers, agents, servants, employees, patients, or attorneys, in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act ("FACE"), 18 U.S.C. Section 248;(b) Publishing, republishing, reproducing and/or distributing anywhere, either directly or indirectly, the "Deadly Dozen" Poster, which is Trial Exhibit 1, or its equivalent, with specific intent to threaten Dr. Robert Crist, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Elizabeth Newhall, Dr. James Newhall, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc., Portland Feminist Women's Health Center, doing business as All Women's Health Services, or any of them or any of their family members, officers, agents, servants, employees, patients, or attorneys;
(e) Publishing, republishing, reproducing and/or distributing anywhere, either directly or indirectly, the Poster of Dr. Robert Crist, which is Trial Exhibit 5, or its equivalent, with specific intent to threaten Dr. Robert Crist, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Elizabeth Newhall, Dr. James Newhall, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc., Portland Feminist Women's Health Center, doing business as All Women's Health Services, or any of them, or any of
their family members, officers, agents, servants, employees, patients or attorneys; (d) Providing additional material concerning Dr. Robert Crist, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Elizabeth Newhall, Dr. James Newhall, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc., Portland Feminist Women's Health Center, doing business as All Women's Health Services, or any of them or any of their family members, officers, agents, servants, employees, patients, or attorneys, with a specific intent to threaten, to the Nuremberg Files or any mirror web site [3] that may be created. In addition, defendants are enjoined from publishing, republishing, reproducing and/or distributing in print or electronic form the personally identifying information about plaintiffs contained in Trial Exhibits 7 and 9 (the Nuremberg Files) with a specific intent to threaten.
2. Defendants and their agents and all individuals in active concert or participation with any of them who receive actual notice of this Order and Permanent injunction or the attached "Notice" shall promptly Submit to the custody of the Court all materials in their possession, custody or control that are not in compliance with the provisions of this Permanent injunction, except that counsel for the defendants may retain one copy of any such materials that were Included in the Record of this Court.
3. Willful violation of this Order and Permanent Injunction or any other of this Court's orders may subject any person who commits such an act to criminal and/or civil prosecution for contempt of this Court. Any violation of this Order and Permanent Injunction will result in immediate issuance of an order to show cause for service on the violator, who after appropriate hearings and findings, will be dealt with within the sanctions provided by law.
4. Defendants, and their agents and all persons in active concert or participation with any of them, are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from disposing of, secreting, pledging, encumbering, conveying, transferring, damaging, mortgaging, at otherwise disposing or removing from its customary location or in any other way making unavailable to the processes of the court, any of their real property or personal property, including, but not limited to, cash, bank accounts, retirement plans, bonds, and other securities, liquid assets and personal property regardless of whether the property is held jointly with another person or individually by the defendant.
5. This Court shall retain jurisdiction of this action for all purposes, including without limitation, all proceedings involving the interpretation, enforcement or amendment of this Order and Permanent Injunction.
DATED this 25th day of February, 1999.
_______________________________
ROBERT E. JONES
U.S. District Judge
FN1. The term "threaten" used herein incorporates this definition.
FN2. For purposes of this Order and Preliminary Injunction, I consider a person to make a "true threat" when the person makes a statement that, in context, a reasonable listener would interpret as communicating a serious expression of an intent to inflict or cause serious harm on or to the listener (objective); and the speaker intended that the statement be taken as a threat that would serve to place the listener in fear for his or her personal safety, regardless of whether the speaker actually intended to carry out the threat (subjective).
FN3. A "mirror web site" within the meaning of this Order means a web site created by an independent party who takes the content from a web site and reproduces it on his or her own computer ("the web server") and locates it at a different Internet address.