Svelmoe Sentenced for Attempt to Bomb Clinic

Eric Svelmoe, a member of the Rev. Dorman Owens’ Bible Missionary Fellowship, was sentenced Monday to six months in jail for planting a pipe bomb at a San Diego abortion clinic a year ago. He also received a four-year suspended sentence and five years of probation.

Svelmoe, 30, of El Cajon, admitted that he planted the device last July 27 at the door of Family Planning Associates Medical Group on Alvarado Road. The bomb failed to explode after its fuse fizzled and Svelmoe was arrested shortly afterward.

Svelmoe cooperated with police and investigators in the U. S. attorney’s office, and Assistant U. S. Atty. Larry A. Burns argued in federal court Monday that Svelmoe should receive a lighter sentence than did his six co-conspirators.

“Without him, cases against all but one of them would have been impossible,� said Burns, who described Svelmoe as “probably the most honest informant I’ve ever met.�

Svelmoe and the six other members of Bible Missionary Fellowship, a Baptist church in Santee, pleaded guilty to charges relating to the bombing plot.

One of them, pastor Dorman Owens, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for witness tampering. Svelmoe wore a hidden microphone in jail and recorded Owens as he apparently suggested that Svelmoe not implicate some of the other suspects. Owens began serving his sentence July 13.

Charges against another indicted

church member, associate pastor Kenneth Felder, were dismissed last month. Felder has split from Owens to found his own fundamentalist church.

Svelmoe served 4 1/2 months of his term while awaiting Monday’s sentencing, leaving him a balance of about six weeks.

“I really am sorry for what I’ve done,� he told the court. “I just would like an opportunity to return to society and be a productive member.�

Prosecutor Sought Leniency

His attorney, Richard J. Boesen, asked that U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam follow a probation officer’s recommendation for a four-year prison term. But Burns, the prosecutor, asked for greater leniency in view of Svelmoe’s cooperation.

Investigators said the group planned to bomb two other abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood in Pacific Beach and Womancare on 6th Avenue. Owens, Svelmoe and other church members have long been vigorous demonstrators against abortion and homosexuality.

“There has been a message in the sentencing that, regardless of your beliefs, no matter how well-intentioned, you don’t resort to weapons, particularly bombs, to decide the issues of the day,� Burns said.

After the hearing, Deborah Fleming, executive director of Womancare, said she was angry that Svelmoe and his former associates did not receive sterner sentences.

“The U. S. attorney believes that (Svelmoe) was a pawn, but I really don’t believe in the barter system,� she said. “There is a national movement to close clinics, and this sends the wrong message. We still get bomb threats. We’re still being picketed.�

The Son of Missionaries

Svelmoe, an airline mechanic and amateur pilot and the son of former missionaries in the Philippines, constructed and tested several bombs before the attempt at the clinic.

An informant had warned police of the plot, and they were staking out the clinic when they saw, chased and caught Svelmoe. He was wearing a woman’s wig as a disguise and had a .357 magnum pistol on the seat of his car.

Svelmoe led police to the bomb and agreed to help detectives. In return, police dropped a weapons charge that carried a mandatory five-year sentence.

In an unrelated case, U.S. District Judge Edward Schwartz on Monday dismissed an anti-abortion picket’s suit against Womancare, Fleming said. The suit by Jaime Bernal charged Womancare with false arrest and violation of Bernal’s constitutional right to free speech. Womancare employees had placed Bernal under citizen’s arrest on suspicion of violating an injunction restricting pickets.

Schwartz ruled that the matter belonged in Superior Court if anywhere, but Fleming said the statute of limitations there “leaves Bernal with no recourse.� Bernal could not be reached for comment.