Court reverses conviction of Florida abortion doctor

ATLANTA - A federal appeals court has overturned convictions of a Florida abortion doctor and a business associate accused of trying to extort money from officials in Ocala, Fla., in a controversy over an abortion clinic there. <br> <br> Dr. James Scott Pendergraft IV was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison in February 2001 and Michael Spielvogel was sentenced to three years and six months for attempted extortion, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit extortion, mail fraud and perjury. <br> <br> Spielvogel also was convicted of perjury and making a false statement to the FBI for claiming that the chairman of the Marion County Board of Commissioners had threatened violence against the Ocala Women&#39;s Center. The clinic, which opened in 1998, was one of five abortion clinics owned by Pendergraft. <br> <br> On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned most of the convictions, but it returned the conspiracy to commit perjury case to the federal district court in Florida for further consideration. The judges also upheld Spielvogel&#39;s conviction for perjury, but they said he must be resentenced in light of the reversals on the other charges. <br> <br> The pair were convicted based on a federal lawsuit they filed against the county claiming the clinic was not given adequate protection against anti-abortion protestors. <br> <br> County officials, who were concerned about the potential for violence at the clinic even before it opened, construed the lawsuit to be part of an extortion plot in which they were expected to pay Pendergraft and Spielvogel to close the clinic. <br> <br> The 11th Circuit panel, Judges Gerald Bard Tjoflat and Emmett R. Cox and Senior Judge Paul H. Roney, said the lawsuit was not a sufficient threat to the county government to prosecute for attempted extortion and the related charges. <br> <br> ``The right of citizens to petition their government for the redress of grievances is fundamental to our constitutional structure,&#39;&#39; said the opinion written by Cox. ``A threat to file suit against a government, then, cannot be `wrongful&#39; in itself.&#39;&#39;

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/7/192452