FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          CR
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1997                              (202) 616-2777
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEEKS A PRELIMINARY ORDER AGAINST A TEXAS MAN 
          FOR ALLEGED INTIMIDATION AT A CLINIC ENTRANCE


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --   The Justice Department today sued a
Texas man who allegedly harassed and threatened the staff of a
Dallas women's clinic in violation of the Freedom of Access to
Clinic Entrances Act (FACE).  

     The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas, seeks
an order preventing Archie Brown, of Dike, Texas from
intimidating and threatening persons affiliated with the Routh
Street Women's Clinic (RSWC) in Dallas.  The Department alleged
that, some time after July 1994, Brown had regularly shouted at
staff entering the facility and threatened them with harm.

     "Congress passed the clinic entrance law to protect women's
constitutional rights to reproductive health services," said
Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Isabelle Katz
Pinzler.   "Today's case underscores our commitment to enforce
the law."

     According to the complaint, on one instance on January 25,
1997, Brown arrived at the clinic in his car and began taking
pictures of a building adjacent to the clinic.  He allegedly told
a clinic security guard who was standing outside that he had been
to Oklahoma, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. "taking care of
business" and that he would be "taking care of business" at the
clinic and wanted to warn them.  The guard perceived Brown's
statements to be in reference to recent bombings and bomb threats
in those cities.

     The Department alleged that between July 1994 and June 1996
Brown would regularly sit at one of the two entrances to the
clinic's parking lot and yell threats to staff, frequently
talking about death and killing.  On certain occasions he
pantomimed the act of shooting clinic staff and told them that he
knew where they lived. 

      Today's suit is the fourteenth civil action filed by the
Justice Department under FACE, which was signed by President
Clinton in May of 1994.  The law forbids anyone from using force,
threat of force or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate or
interfere with a person obtaining or providing reproductive
health services.  It allows the Justice Department to ask a court
to prevent people from threatening or blocking clinics and
harming reproductive health care providers. 

     The complaint asks the court to issue an order preventing
the defendant from coming within a certain distance of the clinic
and from encouraging others to threaten or harm the clinic, its
staff, or its clients.  The Department is also seeking monetary
damages of $5,000 from Brown and additional civil penalties.

     The Routh Street Women's Clinic is located in the 4000 block
of North Central Expressway in Dallas.
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