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Judge dismisses case against Harrisburg Pro-Lifer

A judge dismissed a case against veteran Harrisburg pro-lifer Ed Snell in York District Court December 15 without even hearing the defense portion of the case.

Mr. Snell was charged with disorderly conduct stemming from a November incident at Planned Parenthood’s York, Pa., abortion mill.

Snell was arrested November 3 when he disobeyed an order by York City Police Sgt. Ron Camacho not to enter an alley crossed by clients exiting a private parking lot on their way to the abortion mill.

Snell explained in a phone interview that early that morning, after he had stepped into the alley and attempted to hand pro-life literature to a client, Camacho told him, “If you go into the alley again, I’m going to arrest you.”

“I told him, ‘This is a public alley; I have a First Amendment right to do this.’”

Despite the threat of arrest, Snell said, “I had no choice; if you give up your constitutional rights, they’ve beaten you.”

So when another client came out of the parking lot into the alley, Ed started to approach her.

“I only got two steps into the alley when Sergeant Camacho handcuffed me,” he said.

The sergeant, who was actually off-duty and being paid as a security guard by Planned Parenthood, had to call another officer to take Snell in.

The officer took him to City Hall, where he was manacled to a bench for about two hours, until Camacho finished his shift at Planned Parenthood and could come in and write up the citation.

Snell said that he had a strong case.  Not only was he represented by Denis Brenan, “an outstanding lawyer” with the American Catholic Lawyers Association, he had five pro-lifers who had witnessed the event ready to testify, “plus we had three cameras going – our own cameras, and we subpoenaed the Planned Parenthood camera.”

The prosecution presented as witnesses the first client whom Snell had approached and three Planned Parenthood “escorts,” all of whom “said I never touched anyone,” but just attempted to hand the client literature, said Snell.

“So when Camacho got to the stand, he was hanging out there by himself,” testifying that he had observed physical contact between Snell and the abortion mill “escorts.”

“Planned Parenthood pays these off-duty cops $37.50 an hour; you tell me there can’t be collusion!” Ed commented scornfully.

After the prosecution presented its case, attorney Brenan argued that his client had a First Amendment right to be in a public alley distributing literature and expressing his view about abortion to clinic clients.

“The quintessential public forum is the public street,” said Brenan.  He asked District Justice Ronald Haskell to dismiss the case.

Haskell called Brenan up to the bar and, according to Snell, asked Brenan if he was planning to appeal the case if Haskell found Snell guilty.

Brenan said he would

Without hearing any testimony from Snell or the other defense witnesses, Haskell dismissed the case.

Ed has gone back to the York clinic every Wednesday, the day abortions are done, since the November incident, “but for now, I do most of the videotaping, and another pro-lifer does the counseling,” he said; “we don’t back down, but we are also pragmatic.”

Baltimore Defend Lifers became acquainted with Snell in 1998 when he and his fellow Harrisburg pro-lifers were coming regularly to Baltimore to picket two Maryland abortionists who also did business in Harrisburg.

Ed and several Harrisburg pro-lifers joined Defend Life last March in a picket at the Bethesda home of one of those abortionists, Earl McLeod.

The December 13 case was Snell’s second run-in with Justice Haskell who, in April 2000, found him guilty of two counts of harassment at the York abortion mill.

At the earlier trial, Justice Haskell displayed blatant bias against the pro-lifer (“Snell gets jail in shoving incidents,” Defend Life, May-June 2000), “leading” a prosecution witness and arbitrarily dismissing a defense witness’s testimony as “incredible and unbelievable.”

Snell appealed the case in York County Common Pleas Court, which dropped a 7-day jail sentence but fined him $600 and sentenced him to 100 hours of community service.

Pro-life contributors helped out with the fine, and Ed worked off the 100 hours at his church, St. Francis, in Harrisburg, “doing whatever my pastor asked me to do” and visiting nursing homes.

In addition to their ongoing demonstrations at abortion mills, Ed and other Harrisburg pro-lifers recently obtained a list of area businesses that contribute to Planned Parenthood, and are conducting pickets in front of the businesses.