December 30, 2011 10:11 AM

Abortion doctors charged with murder in Md.

(CBS/AP) ELKTON, Md. Two doctors accused of performing lateterm abortions in Maryland, including one in which a woman was critically injured, have been arrested and charged with murder. Dr. Steven Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., was arrested Wednesday night in New Jersey and was being held in the Camden County Jail on Thursday, police told The Cecil Whig newspaper. Authorities also arrested Dr. Nicola Irene Riley, of Salt Lake City, Utah, on Wednesday night. Riley was being held in the Salt Lake City Jail. Both are awaiting an extradition hearing. Investigators with the Elkton Police Department say they asked police in New Jersey and Utah to arrest the doctors after a Cecil County grand jury handed up indictments against Brigham and Riley earlier Wednesday, capping a 16-month-long investigation. Police say they began their investigation in August 2010 after a botched procedure at Brigham's Elkton clinic. Authorities say an 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and his colleague Dr. Nicola Riley drove the woman to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name. That incident resulted in the murder case against Riley and three of the 11 murder charges against Brigham, prosecutors said. The other charges against Brigham relate to four other illegal abortions he performed at the East High Street Clinic, prosecutors added. A search of the Elkton clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer with 35 lateterm fetuses inside, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks. Brigham started the late-term abortions in New Jersey, where he wasn't permitted to perform them, and nished them a day later in Maryland, where the law is more permissive, authorities said. Police say Brigham faces ve counts each of rst- and second-degree murder. Riley is charged with one count each of rst- and second-degree murder. Brigham and Riley each also face one count of conspiracy to commit rst-degree murder.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57350176/abortion-doctors-chargedwith-murder-in-md/?tag=strip

Abortion doctors charged with murder after 35 late term aborted fetuses found stashed in freezer
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Last updated at 5:26 PM on 30th December 2011

Two doctors accused of performing late-term abortions in Maryland have been arrested and charged with murder after police found a freezer full of 20-35 week fetuses. The investigation of the doctors started over a year ago when they allegedly botched an abortion on an 18-year-old girl, leaving her with a ruptured uterus. Though licensed in other states and never licensed in Maryland, Dr. Steven Brigham, 55, and Dr. Nicola Irene Riley, 46, ran a clinic in Elkton just near the Delaware border.

Charged: Doctors Steven Brigham and Nicola Riley have been arrested after a 16-month investigation into their underground late-term abortion practice

Investigators with the Elkton Police Department say they asked police in New Jersey and Utah to arrest the doctors after a Cecil County grand jury handed up indictments against Brigham and Riley earlier Wednesday, capping a 16-month-long investigation. Police say they began their investigation on in August 2010 after the duo supposedly dropped the patient off whose abortion they botched, leaving her at a nearby hospital. Authorities say an 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and Riley drove the woman to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name. During the ensuing investigation, police found a freezer at the Elton clinic with 35 late-term fetuses inside.

Looks better than it was: Inside the American Women's Services office, police found a freezer full of 35 fetuses aborted late term

Some of these fetuses are believed to have been aborted at 35 weeks, which is nearly the standard length of a full-term pregnancy.

Though Maryland is one of the most-lax states when it comes to abortion law, the discovery of 20-35 week fetuses is particularly gruesome. By comparison, the state's Planned Parenthood facilities are not licensed to perform abortions past the 19th week of the term. Brigham started the late-term abortions in New Jersey, where he wasn't permitted to perform them past 14 weeks, and finished them a day later in Maryland, where the law is more permissive, authorities said. As a result, Brigham faces five counts of first degree murder, five counts of second degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Riley has a lesser charge of one count of first degree murder, second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2080394/Abortion-doctors-chargedmurder-late-term-aborted-35-fetuses-stashed-freezer.html#ixzz1i2ddibmz

Doctors in botched Elkton abortion case face murder charges

Officials say physicians involved in procedure that critically hurt N.J. teen; suspects being held in Utah, New Jersey
By Peter Hermann, The Baltimore Sun 12:23 p.m. EST, December 30, 2011

Two doctors who Maryland authorities say botched a teenager's abortion last year in Elkton have been indicted on murder charges and are awaiting extradition from New Jersey and Utah, where they were arrested this week.

Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., and Nicola Irene Riley, 46, of Salt Lake City, Utah, had been ordered to stop practicing medicine by the Maryland Board of Physicians in September 2010, a month after officials said an operation at the Elkton clinic went awry. An attorney for Birgham did not return calls seeking comment. Riley's lawyer, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, said Friday that "we believe the charges are without legal merit." She also objected to her client behind held without bail in Utah.

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Abortion protesters worried but undeterred by past arrests But Krevor-Weisbaum said she could not comment further because she has not been able to read the indictment. It remains under seal in Cecil County Circuit Court until Riley is formally arraigned in Maryland. The attorney would not say whether Riley would fight extradition to Maryland. In the Elkton case, which police said forms the basis for most of the criminal charges filed this week, an 18-year-old woman from New Jersey suffered a ruptured uterus and other internal injuries during a procedure at the American Woman's Services clinic on East High Street in Elkton.

The physicians board found that the woman, who was 21 weeks pregnant, had initially been treated in Voorhees, N.J., where her cervix was dilated. The woman was then told to travel, in her own car, to Elkton so doctors could complete the procedure. After the woman suffered a ruptured uterus, state officials said Riley put the patient in Brigham's rented Chevrolet Malibu and drove her Union Hospital in Elkton. The board said she sat in slumped in a wheelchair, nearly unconscious, outside the emergency room, while Riley argued with hospital staff, demanding their identities before treating the woman. The woman was flown that day to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for more treatment. State officials said Riley then returned to his clinic in Elkton to perform another abortion. The injured woman survived. Maryland's abortion law, which is less restrictive than in nearby states, may explain why the procedure was initiated elsewhere and completed in Elkton. In other states, later abortions must be performed at a surgical center or hospital rather than at a doctor's office. In New Jersey, pregnancies after 14 weeks cannot be ended at doctors' offices. After this case, the state Health Department proposed regulations to increase oversight of surgical abortion clinics. The standards are open for public comment. Elkton police said they searched the clinic on East High Street but could not located medical records for the woman. But police said they found 35 later-term fetuses, some 20 to 35 weeks old, in a freezer. The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that Brigham's four New Jersey clinics cannot perform abortions after the first trimester 14 weeks of pregnancy because they did not meet safety standards. Another doctor at the clinic, George Shepard Jr., 88, also had his Maryland license suspended by the Board of Physicians, but he has not been charged with a crime. State authorities said Brigham ran a string of clinics in several states, including Pennsylvania and New York. His Maryland clinics were located in Elkton, Baltimore, College Park, Frederick and Cheverly. Both doctors who have been charged have previously lost their licenses to practice medicine or run clinics in several states, including New York and Pennsylvania. Brigham faces five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder. Riley faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Details behind each of the murder counts was not given by Elkton police, who issued a news release on the charges but cited only the case of the 18-year-old woman who was injured. It was not immediately clear if the other murder counts related to the other fetuses that police said were found in the clinic's freezer. peter.hermann@baltsun.com

Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-elkton-abortionarrests-20111230,0,3963352.story

Link sought between Maryland abortion case, Florida clinic

Murder charges against doctors test Maryland abortion law Tue, Jan 3
2012

Maryland abortion doctors charged with murder Sat, Dec 31 2011

By Jason Tomassini
BALTIMORE | Tue Jan 3, 2012 5:29pm EST

(Reuters) - Florida officials on Wednesday were investigating any potential links between a fire at a Pensacola abortion clinic and a New Jersey abortion doctor who has been charged with murder, authorities said.

The cause of the fire on Sunday at the American Family Planning Inc. clinic has not been determined, said Deborah Cox, a spokeswoman for the Florida State Fire Marshal. A mailing address for the clinic listed on the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration website is 1 Alpha Avenue in Voorhees, New Jersey, the same address as American Women's Services, which provides abortions at clinics in four Mid-Atlantic states. American Women's Services is owned by Steven Brigham, a New Jersey doctor arrested on murder charges on December 28. Brigham is charged in Maryland with five counts of first-degree murder, in what could be the first case to test the state's fetal homicide law. Brigham practiced at American Family Planning Inc. in the 1990s, and his license in Florida was revoked in 1996, according to the Florida Department of Health website. The blaze began near the ground level of the building and extended up to the outside of the attic, said Pensacola Fire Marshal David Allen. No one was hurt, and Allen estimated damage to the two-story building at $50,000 to $75,000. The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation, Cox said. The investigation into Brigham and an employee, Nicola Riley, who is charged with one count of first-degree murder, began in August 2010 following a botched abortion in Elkton, Maryland, where Brigham and Riley were present, police said. Officers who searched the Maryland clinic during an ensuing investigation found 35 fetuses in a freezer, a source said. Maryland prosecutors have declined to comment on how the murder charges are tied to the botched abortion or the frozen fetuses. Maryland criminal law states that people can be charged with murder if they "intend to cause the death of the viable fetus." Its state law defines a fetus as "viable" if "there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the womb."

Brigham provided abortions to five patients ranging from 18 to 33 weeks pregnant, according to a report by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners. The report said Brigham started the five late-term abortion cases in his New Jersey clinic, giving patients injections that either softened the cervix or caused "fetal demise." The patients then traveled to Maryland where the abortions were completed, the report said. Brigham completed some himself and Riley completed others under Brigham's supervision, the report said. Brigham's New Jersey license was suspended in October 2010 and he received a cease-and-desist warning in Maryland a month earlier. Brigham argued to the board that the procedures in New Jersey were only preliminary to an abortion and that he only consulted doctors at the Maryland clinic. Brigham's attorney in Maryland, C. Thomas Brown, declined further comment on the case. Florida officials would not comment on a potential link between American Family Planning and Brigham. Brigham is awaiting extradition in New Jersey. Riley appeared on Tuesday in District Court in Salt Lake City, where she was arrested, her Utah-based lawyer, Edwin Wall, said. A bond hearing will be held on January 9, when extradition proceedings to Maryland may be determined, he said. Riley is in custody on a no-bond warrant, said her Maryland lawyer, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, who said the case against Riley holds no merit. "I can tell you we strongly believe the charges are without legal basis," she said. (Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune)
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/03/us-crime-abortion-marylandidUSTRE8021TE20120103 Murder charges against doctors test Maryland abortion law Jan 3, 2012

Abortion doctors facing murder charges could be extradited to Maryland

Hearings for suspects are pending in Utah, New Jersey

Dr. Nicola I. Riley is charged with one count each of first- and second-degree murder in Maryland. (Salt Lake County District Attorney)

Doctors in botched Elkton abortion face murder charges Archives: Abortion doctors suspended after woman suffers injury

One of the two abortion doctors indicted in Elkton on murder charges under the state's fetal homicide law may not fight extradition and could soon be brought from New Jersey to Maryland, according to the Cecil County State's Attorney. Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, 55, of Voorhees, N.J., is being held on $3 million bail in Camden County and an arraignment hearing is scheduled there Thursday. He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and other charges in Maryland. Cecil County's top prosecutor, Edward D.E. Rollins, said Tuesday that he believes the doctor may not contest returning to Maryland based on conversations with the suspect's defense attorney. That lawyer, C. Thomas Brown, could not be reached for comment.

Another doctor charged in the case, Nicola I. Riley, who is being held without bail in Utah, had a brief appearance in Salt Lake County District Court. The hearing is being continued on Jan. 9 to discuss bail. Riley is charged with one count each of first- and second-degree murder in Maryland. Salt Lake County Deputy District Attorney Jeff Hall said prosecutors plan to discuss the case with counterparts in Cecil County to see how they want to proceed. One option, Hall said, is for all sides to agree on a bail, for Riley to post it and voluntarily return to Maryland to face the charges. Hall said Riley also could waive extradition and be "transported back to Maryland." Riley could fight extradition but she would have to prove that either the charges filed in Maryland are not valid or that she isn't the person named in the arrest warrant, according to Hall. Neither argument deals with the merits of the murder case. Rollins said he would discuss the issue with prosecutors on Wednesday before commenting. Riley's attorney, Stuart Simms, a former Baltimore state's attorney, said he had not yet been briefed by the Utah attorney who handled the case and could not comment. The doctors are charged with aborting a late-term fetus that prosecutors and the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office have deemed viable, or showing signs of healthy development, stemming from an abortion that authorities said was botched. A grand jury indicted Brighman on four additional counts of first-degree murder. Police who searched the Elkton abortion office said they found nearly three-dozen late term fetuses in a freezer. Details of the case won't be made public until the suspects are arraigned in Maryland and court files are unsealed. Peter.hermann@baltsun.com Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-abortion-doctorsmurder-20120103,0,5662682.story