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Abortion Court cases Free Speech Politics Sidewalk Counseling

United States of America v. Richard Retta

Yesterday’s Lifesite News carried an opinion piece by Brad Mattes criticizing the increase in federal prosecutions for violations of the Free Access to Clinic Entrance Act (FACE) by the current Department of Justice. He used the case of Richard Retta as an example of the harassing nature of the new complaints by DOJ. You can view an interview with Mr. Retta here.

The Retta case is filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia and captioned United States of America v. Richard Retta, Civil Action No. 11-cv-1280-JEB. (As noted in an earlier post on this blog, readers find court documents for federal cases on PACER.) Here are the facts pled by the DOJ in the case:

8. For over ten years, Defendant Richard Retta has regularly engaged in anti-abortion protest activity at the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitian Washington.
9. Defendant Retta has been among the most vocal and aggressive anti-abortion protesters outside of the Clinic.
10. Defendant Retta frequently walks very closely beside patients as they walk to the Clinic.
11. When volunteer patient escorts accompany patients towards the Clinic entrance, Defendant also typically walks in front of the escorts so that the escorts must change course and walk around Defendant in order to keep walking beside the patient.
12. Defendant frequently follows patients to the Clinic entrance and continues to yell at the patient as the door closes.
13. On one occasion, Defendant walked so close to a patient that he stepped on the patient’s shoe and broke the shoe strap.
14. Defendant frequently follows patients and/or their companions as they leave the Clinic and walk down the block.
15. Defendant frequently follows patients or their companions into the street and oncoming traffic.
16. On January 8, 2011, Mr. Retta physically obstructed a patient from entering the Clinic, and physically obstructed Clinic escorts, such that the patient was only able to ultimately access the Clinic with the extraordinary assistance and intervention of another Clinic escort and staff.
17. At approximately 11:20 a.m., Defendant began talking to a patient as she stood in front of the Clinic gate.
18. After the patient became visibly upset, a volunteer escort offered to walk the patient to the Clinic so that the patient would not have to talk to Defendant.
19. As two volunteer escorts began walking the patient through the gate and along the narrow walkway to the Clinic entrance, Defendant walked alongside the patient and yelled at the escorts that they should not be escorting the patient into the Clinic. He followed alongside them for approximately 35 feet, nearly the entire length of the walkway from the sidewalk to the door of the Clinic.
20. About six feet in front of the Clinic entrance, Defendant walked in front of the patient and positioned himself so that he stood directly in front of the patient and escorts with his back towards the Clinic entrance.
21. The escorts repeatedly asked Defendant to move out of the patient’s way so that she could enter the Clinic, and otherwise attempted to guide the patient into the Clinic.
22. Defendant shouted at the escorts and yelled to the patient, “Don’t go in there. Don’t let them kill your baby.”
23. Each time the patient attempted to walk around Defendant so that she could enter the Clinic, Defendant shifted his position, weaving to step in front of the patient so that he blocked her access to the Clinic.
24. Defendant’s actions likewise prevented Clinic escorts from taking the patient up to the door of the Clinic.
25. The patient was only able to enter the Clinic, and the escorts were only able to facilitate her ingress, with assistance from third parties when another escort physically planted himself next to Defendant, preventing Defendant from continuing to block the patient. Additionally, the security officer who sits at the front desk inside the Clinic exited the Clinic in order to quickly guide the patient
into the Clinic.
26. The patient’s ultimate access to the Clinic, and the escorts’ ability to facilitate the patient’s entrance into the Clinic, were rendered unreasonably difficult and hazardous as a result of the obstruction.
27. Defendant attempted to, and did, by physical obstruction, intentionally intimidate or interfere with persons because they were or had been providing or obtaining reproductive health services, or in order to intimidate such persons from providing or obtaining reproductive health services at the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington.

The government is asking that Mr. Retta be fined $10,000, pay damages of $5,000 to three patients, and be prohibited from engaging in sidewalk counseling or protest activities within 20 feet of the clinic entrance.

Last week Mr. Retta’s attorneys with the American Center for Law and Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case on several grounds including on the ground that FACE does not authorize the federal government to files claims or seek money damages on behalf of private individuals.

Another story of DOJ suing a sidewalk counselor can be found here,. Earlier this month, the 9th Circuit held that a local ordinance similar to FACE had to be enforced against volunteer escorts as well as sidewalk counselors. You can find that story here.

Teresa Collett

Teresa Stanton Collett is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches bioethics, property law, and constitutional law. A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life and protect the institutions of marriage and family. She often represents groups of state legislators, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association in appellate case related to medical-legal matters. She represented the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota before the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae regarding the effectiveness of those states’ parental involvement laws. She has served as special attorney general for Oklahoma and Kansas related to legislation designed to protect the well-being of minors and unborn children. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.