| Scott P. Roeder |
"He said that I never was a member and I never contributed any money," Roeder said. "Well, my gosh, I've got probably a thousand dollars worth of receipts, at least, from the money I've donated to him."
Newman sort of denied taking Roeder's money, claiming he can't find Roeder's name in his database of more than 50,000 donors.
Roeder also wrote Newman a letter from jail.
"I told him, 'You better get your story straight because my lawyer said it'd be good for me to show that I was supporting a pro-life organization.'"
But Thomas' story doesn't address one big piece of the Roeder-Operation Rescue story. Why did he have the phone number of Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue's senior policy adviser, in his car on the day that he allegedly shot Tiller in the head and killed him?
Maybe Thomas asked Roeder. Maybe she didn't. But it'd have been interesting to hear Roeder's explanation.
The day after the shooting, Sullenger, who was convicted of
conspiring to bomb a California abortion clinic in 1988 and has since
renounced violence, told The Pitch that she hadn't spoken with
Roeder "recently." Sullenger said she'd seen him around and maybe he'd
found her name and phone number on the Internet.
"He probably has lots of people's phone numbers," she said.
Later, Sullenger told the Star that she helped Roeder track Tiller's court dates.
"He
would call and say, 'When does court start? When's the next hearing?' "
Sullenger said. "I was polite enough to give him the information. I had
no reason not to. Who knew? Who knew, you know what I mean?"
On Saturday, The New York Times also ran a huge story on Tiller and the Wichita abortion wars on Saturday.
A lot more to come tomorrow.
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Since Cheryl was PR person for Op Rescue, her phone number was listed on many of their press releases.
It would've been a very easy number to obtain. No real mystery there.
I'd hoped to see the Star or the Eagle ask the questions put here by Justin Kendall, but I suppose that's too much to hope for.
Roeder has said that he "counseling" at Dr. Tiller's clinic which would have been with Operation Rescue and Sullenger. "Counseling" in their euphemistic sense means verbally harassing women seeking legal medical services that they try to prohibit, sought from providers whom they don't approve, blocking clinic entrances, threatening, stalking, etc.
Roeder said that he's attended Tiller's trial on two days. Sullenger would have been present there.
Sullenger says that she didn't see the harm in giving Roeder informatiion about Tiller's trial. He also got information about Tiller's church attendance, presumably from Operation Rescue as a product of their stalking Tiller for decades.
We've been down this road before. Shelly Shannon, the convicted clinic arsonist, associated with Operation Rescue prior to attempting to kill Tiller, shooting him in both arms. During Shannon's Wichita trial for attempted murder, Rev. Paul Hill joined Operation Rescue for the proceedings, then returned to Florida where he emptied a shotgun magazine into two elderly, unarmed escorts for an obstetrician, then reloaded and finished murdering the doctor.
Operation Rescue has fomented violence against Tiller since the '80s, through both their rhetoric and their physical harassment. He's been their prime fund raiser for 25 years, as they continuously demonized him only taking breaks when engaged in other fanatical enterprises, such as their extensive quest to deny Terri Schiavo death with dignity or when they similarly physically and verbally harassed opponents of the impending invasion of Iraq.
They used the doctor to raise tax exempt funds until finally the IRS intervened and revoked their status for engaging in political campaigns and other questionable uses of donations.
Hill remained steadfast in his view that his murders were justified, right up until his execution, believing that God was reserving a special place for him in heaven. Shannon, on the other hand, like Sullenger, claims that she has renounced violence against obstetricians. There is no good reason to believe either, of course, but it will be interesting to see which route Roeder goes as the prosecution and his presumed conviction proceeds. He obviously feels no guilt for his "alleged" crimes.
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