Money, e-mail and anti-abortion couple lead authorities to Kopp

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

NEW YORK (CNN) -- With police closing in, it was apparently James Charles Kopp's need for money that led to his capture after more than two years on the lam, according to court documents.

"The sooner I get about 1000, the sooner you see this smiling cherubic face," Kopp wrote last week to Dennis Malvasi, 51 and Loretta Marra, 37, according to federal court documents released Thursday.

Malvasi and Marra -- a husband and wife duo known by authorities for both their staunch stance against abortion and their criminal pasts -- were charged Thursday with knowingly and intentionally conspiring to harbor and conceal a fugitive.

Court documents allege they provided financial aid to Kopp, who was arrested Thursday in France for the 1998 sniper killing of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo, New York, doctor who performed abortions.

According to the documents, Malvasi and Marra had been in contact with Kopp since March 2000. Much of their communication took place 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.

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Unbeknownst to Malvasi, Marra, and Kopp, the FBI monitored the e-mail account.

Malvasi and Marra left messages for Kopp in the account and apparently spoke in code about how Kopp would return to the United States and stay with them in their New York apartment. Before they could arrange 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.

Less than a week before his arrest, Marra left a cheerful message for Kopp reveling in the fact that "you are not diagnosed at all," meaning that she believed authorities were unaware of his whereabouts. "Can't wait to see you," she wrote.

As the couple was taken away from FBI offices in Manhattan, Marra, apparently speaking to well-wishers, said, "Thank you" and "God bless you."

Malvasi and Marra made separate initial appearances late Thursday at the federal courthouse in Manhattan where they were read the charges against them. A preliminary hearing for both is set for April 12.

Malvasi told Magistrate Joan Azrack that he understood the charges against him. He declined a bail hearing.

Marra, asked if she understood why she was arrested, shrugged and said, "Pretty much." A bail hearing was set for next Tuesday.

Malvasi and Marra both have long histories 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 abortion 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-shaped 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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