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Rev. Walter Hoye - Trial Update
Rev. Walter Hoye and Life Legal Defense Foundation, with foreward by OSA staff • 1/14/2009
Walter Hoye has been harrassed by Oakland , California 's abortion providers, city officials, and legal system for his peaceful efforts to offer help to women entering an Oakland abortion clinic. Rev. Hoye was arrested May 13, 2008, for allegedly violating an Oakland ordinance making it illegal to approach within eight feet of women entering abortion clinics without their consent. These charges were expanded to include two counts of "unlawful" approaches and two counts of using "force, threat of force, or physical obstruction" against two clinic escorts. Even though, in a July hearing, the two escorts admitted under cross-examination that Rev. Hoye had never done this, charges were not dropped and he went to trial January 12, 2009. Click here for more background
After being cross examined by the Alameda County Deputy District Attorney, Robert Graff, both the prosecution and the defense rested. It is my prayer that God's name be glorified and the life of His Son (Jesus Christ) be revealed in me. ...................... January 12, 2009 - TRIAL OF REV. WALTER HOYE WRAPPING UP The trial of Rev. Walter Hoye is nearing conclusion, after a week of testimony, mostly from prosecution witnesses, about Mr. Hoye's alleged activities at the Family Planning Specialists clinic in Oakland , California . Unbeknownst to these witnesses and the district attorney, however, an associate of Mr. Hoye had been videotaping from across the street on both the days on which Mr. Hoye was accused of violating the law. Thus, until the defense revealed the existence of the videotape during cross-examination, the witnesses conjured up phantom patients whom Mr. Hoye had allegedly harassed, as well as claiming that he threatened two escorts and the clinic director. The most egregious testimony came from the first witness, clinic director Jackie Barbic, who testified that, while watching Rev. Hoye for about 20 minutes from the building lobby, she saw him approach within a few feet of six to eight patients, including one who put up her hands in front of her face to ward off Rev. Hoye. She testified that after seeing these approaches, she went outside with a tape measure to show Rev. Hoye what eight feet looked like. According to her testimony, Rev. Hoye then sauntered toward her, with a "smirk" on his face, until he was within two feet of her; all the while, she was backing off, saying "Stay away from me! Back down! Back away!" with her hands held up to protect herself. During her testimony, her voice choked with emotion as she described how fearful and intimidated she was. On cross-examination, Ms. Barbic and the jury watched the video of this incident. The video showed Ms. Barbic approaching Rev. Hoye and pointing a tape measure at him and Rev. Hoye not moving an inch. In the video, she can be seen lecturing him, and then talking to others. Mr. Hoye moved away. A few minutes later, the same scene plays out again, with Ms. Barbic again pointing the tape measure at Rev. Hoye, and him moving down the sidewalk in a different direction. When Ms. Barbic was asked if either of these were the incidents she was talking about, she immediately responded that these were not, and that there was a third incident with a tape measure that occurred later. Contrary to her earlier testimony detailing her movements that morning, she now claimed that the video only showed when she had come down earlier in the morning to explain to the escorts where 100 feet from the clinic started. She also claimed that she had been called down to investigate the presence of a moving van parked near the front of the clinic, because she had to make sure there wasn't a bomb in it. The district attorney asked her if she was "100% certain" that the incident on the video was not what she had testified about earlier, and she confirmed that she was 100% certain that this was not it and there was a later incident when Mr. Hoye threatened her just as she had described. There was, of course, no later incident, as the remaining video of the morning showed. Ms. Barbic's other testimony was also contradicted in virtually every particular either by the video or by other prosecution witnesses. Mr. Hoye did not approach any patient across the street; no patient shielded herself from him; Ms. Barbic had already talked to the men loading and unloading the moving van an hour earlier; Ms. Barbic had only watched Mr. Hoye for a minute from inside the building. After the existence of the videotape was revealed to the prosecution, there were no more claims that Mr. Hoye had made any threatening gestures toward anyone, although escorts did claim more approaches to phantom patients. Despite the implosion of Jackie Barbic as a witness, the district attorney kept trying to conjure evidence of a "threat of force" from Mr. Hoye out of nothing. One escort claimed she felt intimidated when she saw Ms. Barbic approach Mr. Hoye with the tape measure and tell him to back off, and "Walter didn't move. He just stood there." In this escort's mind, the law required Rev. Hoye to back away from the clinic director, and the fact that he didn't do so was perceived by her as very intimidating. Or so she testified. Upon cross-examination, it was revealed that she had never mentioned this alleged intimidation to the police or the district attorney until after the district attorney had already filed the charges against Rev. Hoye for allegedly intimidating her. In other words, the district attorney first filed the charges naming her as a victim, and then went desperately searching for evidence to back it up. (The court dismissed this charge at the close of the prosecution's case.) In another case, one of the "victims" claimed that she felt "creepy" when Mr. Hoye spoke to her, warning her not to trip on the curb, after she moved in front of him to cover up his sign. Both her testimony and the video confirmed that she repeatedly walked up to Rev. Hoye and took up a position either directly in front of him or slightly to the side, holding a blank sign in front of Rev. Hoye's sign. As he moved up and down the sidewalk, so did she. When asked why, if she felt intimidated, she didn't move away, she replied that it was more important that she remain in front of him to "prevent women from seeing what is on his sign." Indeed, the escort witnesses were unanimous in this point: that the job of an escort is to prevent women from reading Rev. Hoye's sign or hearing his message. This was testified to repeatedly, in completely unambiguous terms: "The purpose of holding the blank cardboard is to prevent women from seeing the message on his sign." They also acknowledged that the message on the sign was "Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help." And what does Rev. Hoye say to women? "Can I talk to you for a minute about alternatives?" Those messages are "harassing" and "intimidating" and need to be censored. The jury has now seen the entirety of the videotapes from these two dates as part of the defense's case in chief. The trial should conclude early next week. The case is People v. Hoye, No. 541279. ACTION ITEM: Please contact Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff and ask that he open an investigation into this prosecution of Rev. Hoye, including 1) possible prosecution of Jackie Barbic for perjury; 2) whether there was prosecutorial misconduct in charging Walter Hoye with using "force, threat of force, or physical obstruction" against escorts without any evidence that he had at any time done so; and 3) whether there was prosecutorial misconduct in continuing to prosecute Hoye for those crimes in the face of mounting evidence that they were totally lacking in factual basis. Tom Orloff ============= Operation Rescue/Operation Save America |
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