Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991 TAG: 9104190511
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
David J. Lytle of Lynchburg, who organized a sit-in last year in which 30 protesters were arrested at the Roanoke Medical Center for Women, has been charged several times with trespassing outside the clinic.
But the most recent charges are the first to claim that he actually entered the building. Marsha Scott, a clinic secretary who charged Lytle with trespassing, said he sneaked in through the back door and approached women who were waiting to have abortions.
"He was waving his Bible around and screaming at everybody," Scott said. "He said they were all a bunch of sinners."
Scott said Lytle was asked to leave, but refused.
At the time, Lytle was on probation for a charge of trespassing at the clinic during a demonstration last year in which protesters blocked the doors of the building for several hours.
Chief Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Betty Jo Anthony has asked that his suspended 30-day jail sentence on that charge be imposed, based on the most recent incident and on his refusal to pay court costs.
A hearing was scheduled for Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court, but it will have to wait.
In a letter to the court received this week, Lytle told Judge Clifford Weckstein that he is serving time in a Maryland jail for trespassing at what he called an "abortion mill."
Lytle, who also has served jail time in Norfolk, wrote that he is due to be released May 8.
Acting as his own attorney, Lytle recently filed court papers saying he has not paid court costs "on the grounds that he was denied the opportunity to present an adequate defense, therefore he had no trial at all."
Last year, Lytle had asked to use a so-called "necessity defense," in which he would have argued that he was entitled to break the law by trespassing at the clinic in order to prevent a greater harm - the killing of unborn babies.
Weckstein ruled that he could not use the defense, and Lytle later withdrew an appeal and was convicted of the misdemeanor charge.
Lytle is part of a small group of anti-abortion activists who gather almost every Wednesday on the sidewalk in front of the Second Street clinic to protest.
by CNB