ARTICLES
February 2003 ARTICLES
Contents © 2003
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Bible-Toting Terrorist?
FBI Targets Peaceful Pro-Life Protestor
By Maria Kennedy
Although Terri Palmquist has been picketing the Family Planning Associates in Fresno for many years without having experienced any problems, last July abortionist Kenneth Wright called the police on her. Palmquist, he said, had threatened him -- by reading a passage from the Bible.
Palmquist, a petite mother of nine children, told Wright that she meant him no physical harm but was concerned about his spiritual welfare because of his abortion practice. According to witnesses at the scene, on July 9, Palmquist read aloud a passage from Ezekiel 33, which tells evildoers of their need for repentance. Wright then called the police and told them that Palmquist had threatened him. After questioning both parties, the police decided that there were insufficient grounds for arresting Palmquist.
Not to be deterred, Wright then petitioned the Kern County superior court to grant him a temporary restraining order, barring Palmquist from coming within 150 yards of the abortion clinic or him. After hearing testimony from both sides, superior court judge Gary Friedman refused Wright's request and dismissed the case.
Although the Palmquist family believed that this was the end of the ordeal, later in the year they learned the matter had been taken up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for investigation. On the day of the July 9 incident, some Catholic pro-lifers, who were praying the Rosary in front of the clinic, witnessed Palmquist reading from the Bible to Wright. When asked if Palmquist had acted in a threatening manner towards the abortionist, one Catholic home schooling mother of two, who asked not to be named, said, "no, not at all." When asked why the FBI was investigating the Palmquist family, this Catholic home schooling mother replied, "they are alleging that Mrs. Palmquist threatened the abortionist." This mother of two was subpoenaed, along with several other pro-life Catholics, to appear before the FBI and a federal grand jury on December 19 for questioning about the Palmquist matter. According to a press release issued by Palmquist's attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, the U.S. attorney's office "will either seek an indictment" of Palmquist "for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or some alleged terrorist threat." Chavez-Ochoa has taken Palmquist's case on behalf of the Life Legal Defense Foundation.
When contacted by this reporter for comment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar, who is handling the matter for the federal government, denied that there was a case pending against Palmquist. "The case is still at the investigative stage," Escobar noted. "There is no federal prosecution at this time. at this point there is nothing that is public record. Grand jury proceedings are not public."
One of the witnesses who was called into the December 19 proceeding said that they had been interviewed by the FBI at the proceeding. "One of the questions they asked was how would we describe Mrs. Palmquist," said the witness. "I told them that violence doesn't fit; she doesn't act violently at all. We have been at the clinic for two years and, yes, she does save lives. It's a beautiful work for God."
FBI agent Michael Mahony of the bureau's Fresno office is in charge of the Palmquist investigation. When I asked him if Palmquist were being investigated for reading the Bible aloud, he replied, "no." When asked what she was being investigated for, Mahony replied that all questions should be directed to the prosecutor, Escobar. During the questioning of the witnesses at the grand jury proceeding, Mahony told them that the prosecutor, presumably Escobar, "was new to him." "I did notice that they [Mahony and Escobar] went to lunch together," one witness told this reporter. The witness stated that an assistant U.S. attorney from Washington, D.C., with the FBI's civil liberties unit, had been brought in for the case.
When I asked this witness why she was at the proceeding, she answered that she and her family had been present on the day of the Bible reading incident. The young mother said that she was frightened when the FBI first appeared on her doorstep, "because I'm a home schooler. Usually I don't have well-dressed men at my door," she noted. After being told by the agents about the nature of their visit, she allowed them into her home where they proceeded to question her about what Terri Palmquist had done on July 9.
The Palmquist family has been put under surveillance by the FBI. According to sources, the FBI has been seen on the Palmquist's street for several weeks. In spite of having a possible grand jury indictment hanging over their heads during Christmas, the family remain cheerful and prayerful and continue their pro life work.
Longtime Palmquist family friend, Pastor Al Howard of His Nesting Place, a home in Long Beach for women with crisis pregnancies, said that the entire matter has very serious implications for pro lifers. "If she is indicted for reading the Scriptures out loud, we're probably in the most frightening times of this century," he said. "Christians have been reading the Bible out loud for centuries. I have known Terri Palmquist for 20 years. She's just a little housewife with nine children. They live on a very meager income to do their pro life work. She has been at this clinic for 15 year s and the same abortionist has been there as well. This is a man who told her, 'God must be a woman because this world is in such a mess,' after she told him, 'God bless you.' In July she decided to read to him from the Bible."