FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CR
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1996                           (202) 616-2777
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
        KANSAS WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SETTING FIRES AT
             TWO VIRGINIA WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINICS

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Wichita, Kansas woman pleaded guilty
today to setting fire to two abortion clinics in the Norfolk,
Virginia area, the Justice Department announced.
     Jennifer Patterson Sperle, 24, entered a plea of guilty
before the U.S. District Court in Norfolk.  Last March, Sperle
was indicted on criminal charges for conspiring to commit arson
at two women's health clinics--the Peninsula Medical Center for
Women in Newport News and the Tidewater Women's Health Center in
Norfolk.
     "Today's case underscores our continuing effort to ensure
that women have access to health clinics around the country,"
said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Deval L.
Patrick.  
     On December 13, 1994, Spearle placed a lit flare through the
mail slot at the Peninsula Medical Center for Women.  On March 6,
1996, she broke a window at the Tidewater Clinic, poured two
gallons of kerosene throughout the clinic, and set it afire. No
one was harmed in the incidents.
     Sperle faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 
In May, Clark Ryan Martin, Spearle's co-defendant in the case,
pleaded guilty to the same charges.  Spearle is scheduled to be
sentenced on February 10, and Martin's sentence will follow.
     The case was prosecuted by the Department's Criminal and
Civil Rights Divisions and investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms and the Norfolk Police Department.
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