All Blog Posts from Crimesider

WICHITA, Kan. - Defiant and unapologetic, a man accused of shooting a Kansas abortion provider confessed to the slaying Monday, telling The Associated Press that he killed the doctor to protect unborn children.

Scott Roeder, 51, of Kansas City, Missouri, spoke to the AP in a telephone call from jail, saying he plans to argue at his trial that he was justified in shooting Dr. George Tiller.

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VERNAL, Utah - Aaron Harrison, of Naples, Utah, was sentenced Tuesday to up to five years in prison for beating a pregnant girl to try to cause a miscarriage.

It's horrible, but the strange twist to this crime is the expectant mother actually paid Harrison to do it, say police.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Online retailer eBay said it will not allow an auction planned to raise money to defend Scott Roeder, the man charged with killing Kansas abortion provider George Tiller.

Roeder's supporters had hoped to sell off an unusual array of items to raise money for his defense against murder charges.

One of the proposed items was the "Army of God" manual, an underground publication geared towards anti-abortion "militants" which describes dozens of ways to shut down abortion clinics, including bombing.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - EBay is suddenly finding itself in the middle of the abortion debate.

Anti-abortion activists are planning an auction on EBay and other online shopping sites to raise money to defend the man charged with killing Wichita, Kan., abortion doctor George Tiller.

The alleged shooter, Scott Roeder, said in a phone interview that he was excited about the auction, which is to include a manual for anti-abortion "militants" and a prison cookbook.

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Sunday condemned the killing of anti-abortion activist James Pouillon in Michigan as activists and others gathered for a vigil near the site where he was fatally shot.

Obama called last week's shooting of Pouillon "deplorable" in a two-sentence statement.

"Whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer," Obama said in the statement.

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OWOSSO, Mich. - Jim Pouillon, an anti-abortion protester familiar to residents of a Michigan community was shot to death outside a high school in front of horrified students and parents, according to police.

Owosso police chief Michael Compeau said Pouillon, 63, was outside the school with a sign when a man drove by and shot him Friday morning.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex in a restaurant six years ago with a woman now accused of trying to extort millions of dollars from him. And when she told him two weeks later she was pregnant, he gave her $3,000 for an abortion.

Pitino told police he had been drinking in a Louisville restaurant and had consensual sex with Karen Sypher in August 2003. The police report said the 56-year-old coach denied Sypher's allegations that he raped her after the restaurant closed and at another time somewhere else.

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OPEKA, Kan. - Operation Rescue, the militant anti-abortion group who had harsh words for the slain abortion doctor George Tiller, even after his murder, now wants to buy Tiller's shuttered clinic.

It would be the ultimate irony, and perhaps ultimate statement, for Operation Rescue to turn Tiller's murder into office space from which they can further their message.

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WICHITA, Kan. - An animal rights group has latched onto the killing of a Kansas abortion provider to promote its message.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, says it plans to place two billboards in Wichita in the wake of the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller.

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NEW YORK - Anti-abortion leaders are deeply worried that the Obama administration and other Democrats may try to capitalize on the slaying of Dr. George Tiller to defuse the abortion issue in upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Many anti-abortion groups condemned the killing of Tiller, a prominent abortion provider in Kansas. But they expressed concern that abortion-rights activists would use the occasion to brand the entire anti-abortion movement as extremist.

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