OAN Abril Elfi
2:54 PM – Tuesday, July 11, 2023
A college student who admitted to setting a structure intended to house Wyoming’s only full-service abortion clinic on fire has reached a plea deal with the prosecution.
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According to records filed in federal court on Monday, details into Lorna Roxanne Green’s proposed plea deal’s weren’t made public.
In June, Green, 22, entered a not-guilty plea in the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne to an arson allegation.
Investigators believed that on May 25, 2022, Green shattered a window at the clinic, filled aluminum baking pans with gasoline, and set it ablaze. The clinic, which had attracted anti-abortion protests, was supposed to open a few weeks later, but due to the fire damage, it wasn’t able to start seeing patients until April.
On the night of the incident, a masked woman wearing a hooded shirt was shown inside the clinic building on surveillance footage. The footage was released by the authorities immediately after the fire.
Green wasn’t detained in relation to the crime until March, when the case’s prize was raised to $15,000 and tipsters identified her as a potential suspect. According to court filings, Green admitted to investigators that she was anti-abortion and that the Wellspring Health Access clinic that was scheduled to open in Casper, Wyoming, last year was giving her anxiety and nightmares, which led her to decide to destroy it.
Due to the new plea deal, Green could avoid the trial set for July 24th. If Green is found guilty, she could face up to 20 years in jail and could be fined $250,000.
When contacted by phone regarding the new agreement, Ryan Semerad, Green’s attorney, declined to comment on the plea deal.
For the last 10 years, the Wellspring Health Access clinic has been Wyoming’s sole dedicated clinic to provide surgical abortions. According to the clinic, it also provides women’s healthcare and abortion drugs.
Before Wellspring opened, the only other facility in Wyoming to offer medication abortions was a women’s health center in Jackson, some 250 miles away.
Even though lawmakers approved a bill making abortion illegal except in circumstances of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger, abortion is still permitted in conservative Wyoming. However, a state judge suspended the prohibition as well as the abortion pill ban while the opposing lawsuit was being heard.
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