FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE							                  

CR

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 1998						           

(202)616-2765

TDD (202)514-1888

 
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INDICTS ARKANSAS MAN FOR BOMB THREATS

AT TWO WOMEN'S HEALTH CLINICS

 
	WASHINGTON, D.C. ­ A federal grand jury today indicted an Arkansas man who made
two bomb threats to women's health clinics in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Justice Department
announced.

	The Department said the case was the 33rd brought under a federal law to protect access
to clinics.

	The two count indictment, which was returned today in U.S. District Court in Little Rock,
charged that on September 25, 1997, J. Fred Hart, Jr. parked  two Ryder trucks in the parking
areas of the Little Rock Family Planning Services and the Women's Community Health Center
creating the impression that they carried bombs.  Both facilities provide reproductive health
services in Little Rock.  On the day the trucks were parked and discovered,  President Clinton
and Attorney General Janet Reno were in Little Rock to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the
desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.

	The trucks did not contain any explosive material and no one was injured in the incidents.

		Under the law, known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE),
the Justice Department can prosecute people who, by force or threat of force, intimidates,
interferes, or obstructs reproductive health clinics or their staff and patients.  The Act was
enacted in May of 1994.

	"Congress passed the clinic entrance law to protect a woman's constitutional right to
reproductive health services," said Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Bill Lann
Lee.  "Today's case marks our continuing effort to enforce this law and to ensure that women
have access to medical services that is free of violence and intimidation."

	Both counts charge the defendant under FACE with attempting to intimidate or interfere
with individuals because those individuals were providing or receiving reproductive health
services.	

	FACE violations carry up to one year imprisonment and a $100,000 fine for first
offenses.  The FACE law has both civil and criminal provisions.

	Hart is scheduled to be arraigned on August 6, 1998.  

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