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Accused abortion-doctor killer pleads not guilty

Kopp at a 2001 extradition hearing.

BUFFALO, New York (CNN) -- After more than 14 months in French custody, James Charles Kopp, accused of killing a Buffalo obstetrician-gynecologist because he performed abortions, asserted his innocence Wednesday after arriving back in the United States to stand trial.

Kopp pleaded not guilty during his arraignment before a federal magistrate at the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Buffalo. He was denied bail at the government's request.

The court appearance came just a few hours after Kopp landed in Buffalo on a U.S. government plane, accompanied by U.S. marshals and FBI agents.

Kopp, 47, faces federal and state charges in the shooting death of Dr. Barnett Slepian on October 23, 1998, as Slepian was standing inside his suburban Buffalo home. He was felled by a single bullet that passed through his kitchen window and struck him in the back.

RESOURCES • Federal indictment U.S. v. Kopp  • May 1999 Affidavit of FBI Agent Re: Kopp investigation   • N.Y. indictment: People v. Kopp      LEGAL RESOURCES Latest Legal News Law Library FindLaw Consumer Center Select a topic Bankruptcy Discrimination Divorce Estate Planning Landlord-Tenant Personal Injury Taxes

Slepian, 52, a married father of four children, was an abortion provider who had been the target of anti-abortion protests. Kopp was a well-known activist, nicknamed "Atomic Dog," who had been arrested more than 20 times for civil disobedience outside abortion clinics.

Six months after the sniper killing, investigators found the murder weapon, a .30-caliber rifle, buried in the woods about 140 feet behind Slepian's home. According to an FBI affidavit, the rifle was sold in July 1997 by a Nashville pawn shop to a man of Kopp's description and age.

At least three witnesses saw Kopp in Slepian's neighborhood in the days before the shooting, according to the affidavit. One witness saw Kopp's car parked a half-mile from the house. Fibers from that car, which was abandoned at the Newark, New Jersey, airport, matched fibers on gloves buried with the rifle.

Kopp's hair fibers -- matched by DNA testing to a toothbrush he left in a friend's house -- were found on a baseball hat buried with the gun, and binoculars found at the scene fit into a binocular case left in Kopp's car.

Investigators also found a piece of paper with Slepian's name and office phone number in Kopp's last known residence, an apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Kopp fled the United States and lived incognito in England, Scotland, and Ireland, sleeping in hostels and working odd jobs, including as a clerk for a Dublin hospital, sources have said. Kopp moved to western France in March 2001.

After a two-and-a-half year manhunt, during which Kopp was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, Kopp was arrested in Dinan, France, March 29, 2001, outside a post office where he went to retrieve a package sent from the United States. He was subsequently jailed in Rennes.

Former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin signed the extradition order on March 21, and Kopp waived his right to appeal on May 21. The extradition was granted after assurances that U.S. prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.

Kopp's court-appointed defense attorney, Paul Cambria, said that Kopp wants to stand trial and "clear his name."

Kopp faces federal charges that he used deadly force in violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and that he committed a violent act with a gun. He also faces state charges of murder in the second degree.

The maximum he could be sentenced to on either the federal or state charges is life in prison.

A couple accused of aiding Kopp during his time as a fugitive is scheduled to go on trial in Buffalo federal court on July 30. Loretta Marra, 38, and her husband, Dennis Malvasi, 52, face charges of obstructing justice for allegedly sending Kopp money and messages while he was on the run.