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Couple charged with aiding Kopp gets trial moved

If convicted, Marra and Malvasi each face up to 10 years in prison

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Brooklyn judge transferred the case of a couple charged with aiding murder suspect James Charles Kopp to Buffalo, New York, where they will be arraigned next week.

Both Loretta Marra, 37, and her husband, Dennis Malvasi, 51, appeared in court Tuesday as Judge Roanne Mann signed the commitment orders to move the case to the Western District of New York.

Marra, an anti-abortion activist, blew kisses to friends and supporters in the courtroom before being led away. Her lawyer, Bruce Barket, said Marra and Malvasi will be arraigned next Tuesday, but he did not know when their bail hearings would be held.

Kopp, the man they're accused of helping, is in custody in France. He's suspected of the 1998 shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo doctor who performed abortions.

DOCUMENTS • Read the federal complaint against Malvasi and Marra (FindLaw) (PDF) • Read the federal indictment against Kopp (FindLaw) (PDF) • Read the state indictment (People v. Kopp) (FindLaw) (PDF) • Read the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (18 U.S.C. 248) (FindLaw) Documents in PDF format require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.  RESOURCES Attacks on abortion providers The remaining nine on the FBI's most wanted list Federal Access to Clinic Entrances act (from Cornell)  MESSAGE BOARD The abortion issue

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Marra and Malvasi were charged last Thursday with knowingly and intentionally conspiring to harbor and conceal a fugitive.

Court documents allege Marra and Malvasi provided financial aid to Kopp.

According to the documents, they had been in contact with Kopp since March 2000, mostly through a Yahoo! e-mail account. Instead of e-mailing back and forth, however, the document shows the three would leave messages in the "draft" box of the account.

Unbeknownst to Malvasi, Marra, and Kopp, the FBI was monitoring the account.

Malvasi and Marra left messages for Kopp in code about how he would return to the United States and stay with them in their New York apartment. Before they could effect his return, however, Kopp logged into the Yahoo! account on March 21, 2001 and asked the pair to wire him some money to an address in France.

Another message sent the same day said to send $20 to "Jean Aubrigon, c/o la post, Dinan, France." Kopp was captured as he was exiting the post office in that small western French town.

Malvasi and Marra have a long history with the anti-abortion movement.

Malvasi, a convicted clinic bomber, recently received an award for his fight against abortion and in his acceptance speech to other activists said:

"When a baby defender on the lam knows of a supporter who won't shut the door in his face ... this is beyond gold," he said in a January 21 speech, according to the right-wing Web site, streetpreach.com.

"My favorite (slogan) is 'Violence never solves anything.' Of course it does, it solves all kinds of problems. And good and just men have used it throughout history."

In 1987, Malvasi, an ex-Marine with explosives training, was sentenced to seven years in prison for dynamiting or attempting to blow up four New York-area clinics where abortions were performed. He surrendered to police earlier that year after Cardinal John O'Connor pleaded for him to turn himself in.

"I thought the issue here is the slaughter of babies. I'd like to ask you one question, 'Is abortion murder?,' " he told the judge, who didn't respond.

Kopp and Marra were arrested in early 1991 in Levittown, New York, for locking their feet together in a steel, doughnut-shape device in front of a clinic where abortions are performed. The two were charged with obstructing governmental administration and criminal trespass.

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Hair evidence provides clues in abortion-doctor killing
January 22, 1999
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Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • The FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

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