Friday June 11, 1999

OR Director Rev. Flip Benham Arrested Again

Yesterday, Rev. Flip Benham was arrested at the Meadow Road mill in Dallas, Texas and charged with criminal trespass.

Shortly after Rev. Benham tried to appeal to a finger-shooting, profanity-spewing, abortion-bound mother from the mill driveway, three police squad cars arrived at the clinic.

Present at the abortion mill with Rev. Benham was James Versyp. The police first approached Mr. Versyp and demanded that he identify himself. When Mr. Versyp asked the officer why he was being IDed, the officer told him that he had been involved in a disturbance. The officer also told Mr. Versyp that someone in the clinic had alleged that he [Versyp] tried to enter the clinic.

After the police further questioned the lady who made the complaint, they then approached Rev. Benham. In spite of Rev. Benham's objections, the police arrested him.

Rev. Benham was given a trespass warning at the Meadow Road mill several weeks ago by the police. Normally, the police give a person a trespass warning before they charge them with trespassing.

After being released from jail, Rev. Benham stated that there's some ambiguity as to where the property line is in the clinic driveway.

Although Rev. Benham was disappointed in having been arrested, he was encouraged by events that had transpired three weeks earlier at Meadow Road. A lady named Kristine had stopped to talk with him in the clinic driveway. After Kristine went into the clinic, she came out and told Rev. Benham that she couldn't go through with the abortion. Rev. Benham helped Kristine get in touch with a local crisis pregnancy center, and was later contacted by Kristine's boy friend who thanked Rev. Benham for helping save his twin boys. Rev. Benham and the crisis pregnancy center have talked to the couple since then about making some life-style changes and about getting married.