Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Abortion

Florida Man Sentenced to Prison for Targeting Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers

Tampa, FL – A Florida man was sentenced today to one year and a day in prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers in the free exercise of the right to provide and seek to provide reproductive health services. Caleb Freestone, along with two co-defendants, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera, selected reproductive health facilities that provided and counseled alternatives to abortion and vandalized those facilities with threatening messages.

According to court documents, these defendants engaged in a series of targeted attacks on pregnancy help centers in Florida. The defendants admitted they participated in the attack in the dark of night, and while wearing masks and dark clothing to obscure their identities, spray painted the facilities with threatening messages, including “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for U” and “We are everywhere.” These defendants pleaded guilty on June 14 to a civil rights conspiracy.

“These defendants admitted that they conspired to paint threatening messages on crisis pregnancy centers, based on the defendants’ objection to the services those centers offered,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Violence and threats of violence have no place in our national discourse on reproductive health. The Justice Department is committed to protecting the right to access reproductive health care and prosecuting anyone who interferes with that right.”

“These defendants conspired to threaten and intimidate providers offering reproductive health care,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg for the Middle District of Florida. “Federal law protects these providers and those who seek their services. My office will continue its work to protect access to reproductive health care and federally prosecute those interfering with that right.”

Smith-Stewart and Rivera were also each sentenced today to 30 days in prison and 60 days in home detention.

The FBI Tampa Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from the Miami Police Department.

Trial Attorney Laura-Kate Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Courtney Derry for the Middle District of Florida are prosecuting the case. 

Anyone who has information about incidents of violence, threats and obstruction that target a patient or provider of reproductive health services or damage and destruction of reproductive health care facilities, should report that information to the FBI at www.tips.fbi.gov. For more information about clinic violence, and the Justice Department’s efforts to enforce Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act violations, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/national-task-force-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Share Story Via Text, E-Mail, Facebook or Twitter

Follow Us on Social Media

Related Stories

Politics

A group seeking to stop a pro-abortion initiative on this year’s Florida ballot says the proponents of Amendment 4 are trying to trick the...

Crime

Conservative Sheriff Gordon Smith says he’s a “Yes” vote on Florida’s Amendment 3, which would legalize marijuana in the state. Law enforcement officials around...

Crime

Earlier this year, Florida Daily reported about a federal case involving a customs agent at Naples Airport who pleaded guilty to stealing cash from...

Crime

Below is an official release from the Department of Justice’s US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. An indictment was unsealed yesterday...

Crime

Data from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Census Bureau shows the city of Miami has the highest number of credit card fraud...

Abortion

GUEST OPINION EDITORIAL by Zack Smith Limiting governmental intrusion sounds great. Right? Protecting the health of mothers. Who would object to that? That’s how...

Crime

New polling this year reveals that public support for local police is up, as is voter trust. Lexipol compiled several surveys of voters’ attitudes...

Crime

Marion County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Major Crimes Detective Henrik Osthed arrested 58-year-old Carl Philip Lombardo for Human Trafficking of a Child for Commercial Sexual...