The Department of Justice indictment has charged 11 people after they blocked access to an abortion clinic in Tennessee.
Seven people were charged with conspiracy against rights secured by the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and four were charged with committing FACE violations, according to an indictment that was returned by a Nashville, Tennessee, grand jury on Monday and unsealed on Wednesday.
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Coleman Boyd, 51, of Bolton, Mississippi; Dennis Green, 56, of Cumberland, Virginia; Paul Vaughn, 55, of Centerville, Tennessee; Chester Gallagher, 73, of Lebanon, Tennessee; and Heather Idoni, 58; Calvin Zastrow, 57; and Caroline Davis, 24, all of Michigan, were all charged with conspiracy.
Eva Edl, 87, of Aiken, South Carolina; Eva Zastro, 24, of Dover, Arkansas; James Zastro, 25, of Eldon, Missouri; and Paul Place, 24, of Centerville, Tennessee, were charged with violating FACE.
In February 2021, Gallagher allegedly used “social media to promote a series of anti-abortion events … in the Nashville area,” according to the Justice Department. On March 4 of that year, Boyd and Gallagher organized a blockade at the Carafem Health Center Clinic, calling it a “rescue,” the documents add.
Boyd launched a Facebook livestream of the blockade at 7:45 a.m. on March 5, which documented a group of anti-abortion supporters blocking the clinic’s entry doors and preventing both a patient and employee from entering, officials said.
He allegedly said on the livestream that the patient was a “mom coming to kill her baby.”
The indictment said the 11 people aided and abetted one another to use force and physical obstruction to “injure, intimidate, and interfere” with employees and those seeking care.
If those charged with conspiracy are convicted, they are set to face up to 11 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Those charged with FACE violations, if convicted, will face up to one year in prison and fined up to $10,000.
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The case is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Coordinator of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and was investigated by the FBI.
All those charged will appear in Nashville’s U.S. District Court. The date is undetermined at this time.
