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Pro-Life Activist’s House Released—But RICO Case Drags On

To: National Desk, Legal Desk
Contact: Joseph M. Scheidler of the Pro-Life Aciton League, 773-777-2900, cell 312-965-1030

Chicago, June 9—”I’m not surprised that NOW found a way to keep control of this case,” said Joseph M. Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League. “In the twenty years we’ve been fighting NOW v. Scheidler, it has been our experience that NOW’s attorneys are masters of the art of deception and misrepresentation.”

Scheidler went to Federal Court Thursday morning expecting to watch Judge David Coar sign a Judgment in his favor as directed by the United States Supreme Court in their Opinion handed down on February 28. But once again NOW’s attorney Fay Clayton pulled off another delay.

Claiming that she had not had time to consider the simple Judgment that would put an end to the twenty-year-old lawsuit, Clayton said she had objections to some of the elements of the Judgment. She said she wanted to make sure the Settlement Injunction NOW had secured against Randall Terry prior to the seven-week trial in 1998 would continue in effect in spite of the Supreme Court’s finding that there had never been a RICO violation.

Although Judge Coar said he was ready to sign the Judgment drafted by Tom Brejcha, Scheidler’s attorney, and although Brejcha urged him to do so, Coar bowed to Clayton’s wishes and continued the case for two weeks until June 22.

Clayton could find no plausible reason to object to releasing the remainder of the bond, which consisted of the Scheidler home. Judge Coar signed the release document, returning ownership and control of the north side Chicago home to the Scheidlers.

“So the twenty-year-old case slides into its twenty-first year,” said Scheidler, observing that June 9 marks the twentieth anniversary of the original filing of the NOW v. Scheidler case.

“In other words,” Scheidler said, “that means I am still a convicted federal racketeer.”

A complete case summary of NOW v. Scheidler is available at https://prolifeaction.org/nvs.

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