Copyright 1999 The Buffalo News
The Buffalo News
December 10, 1999, Friday, CITY EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1C
LENGTH: 471 words
HEADLINE:
ABORTION FOE IS BARRED FROM ESCAPING FINES VIA
BANKRUPTCY
BYLINE: MICHAEL BEEBE; News
Staff Reporter
BODY:
A veteran
anti-abortion protester cannot use bankruptcy
to erase a debt of more than $ 50,000 in court-imposed fines, legal fees and
interest she owes a Buffalo clinic that performs abortions, a federal judge has
ruled.
Bonnie D. Behn, 57, of Amherst, whose husband, the Rev. Robert L.
Behn, organized the Operation Save America demonstrations last spring, is
legally responsible for the debt to Buffalo GYN Womenservices.
"If
anyone thought they might escape penalties for violating a judge's order through
bankruptcy," said Glenn E. Murray, a lawyer who represented the clinic, "they
should read this decision." Both Behns filed for bankruptcy in March, a month
before the demonstrations, saying they could not afford to pay their debts after
Behn retired as a Conrail yardmaster because of physical problems.
Behn's bankruptcy was approved by the court on June 16, but Murray
challenged Mrs. Behn's filing. He said she was trying to avoid paying penalties
imposed after she violated court orders that she keep her distance from the
clinic.
The 23-page ruling by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael J. Kaplan
has been awaited by lawyers in a similar case in Syracuse filed by Randall
Terry, the former leader of Operation Rescue.
Terry is also trying to
use bankruptcy to avoid paying $ 1.6 million he owes the National Organization
for Women and Planned Parenthood for court awards stemming from his abortion
protests.
Mrs. Behn could not be reached to comment.
She earlier
said she would never pay the money.
"How could I ever give a
penny to the people who are doing this atrocity to children?" she said after
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara imposed the initial $ 10,000 contempt fine
in 1992. "I would be sending a donation to Womenser
vices for baby
killing."
Arcara had found her in contempt for violating his order at
the time prohibiting abortion protesters from going within 15 feet of the Main
Street clinic, blocking its entrances or badgering patients.
Her
attorney, Denis A. Kitchen Jr., said he is considering an appeal of Kaplan's
order.
Kitchen doubts his client will be able to pay the contempt fine,
the $ 25,000 in legal fees or the accumulated interest that brings the debt to
more than $ 50,000.
"In this case, Mrs. Behn is not employed, and she is
not employable because she has some physical problems," Kitchen said. "I think
it is extremely unlikely that anyone will recover anything."
Murray said
the ruling is as important for its symbolic value to other protesters as it is
for any money the clinic eventually collects.
After the bankruptcy
filings by Terry and Mrs. Behn, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., attached a
rider to a bankruptcy reform bill that would prevent people from using
bankruptcy to avoid paying penalties levied in
abortion protests.
LOAD-DATE: December
12, 1999 
