Something Stinks in Iowa: Compelling the Witness to be Absent?

On November 1, 2006, the day of Donna Holman's arrest, there happened to be one other witness besides her husband Dan. Mary Soloski occasionally came out to the Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa abortion "clinic" to quietly pray the Rosary. She gave timid testimony at trial to Donna's peaceful demeanor. Husband Dan opted not to testify to avoid being sequestered during trial (as would be necessary for a witness), so he could attend the trial and assist Donna's Lawyer. And what would his testimony matter. Would anyone believe the testimony of a devoted husband concerning his wife?

The only regular voice outside the abortuaries of the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City region who has joined the Holmans over the past three years was Randy Crawford. His association with the Holmans began on 22 January, 2005 at a demonstration on the anniversary of the Roe opinion. In March of 2006 Mr. Crawford joined the Holmans regularly.

Wednesdays and Saturdays were the regular killing days which are also the days that the Holmans and Mr. Crawford take their posts outside the Planned Parenthood abortion facility at 9:00 a.m. That is the time when the "clients" arrive at Planned Parenthood. The persistent presence of these three continued for eight months until some decisions were made, it seems, to interfere with their faithful presence. On Wednesday, October 25, Mr. Crawford was arrested by the Iowa City police and charged with trespassing. He was given a choice to appear in court for arraignment between two Wednesday mornings, the next one (November 1) or the one following (November 8). In fact, defendants may reply to such misdemeanor citations by filling out a written form and entering a plea with the clerk of courts at time during office hours. But Mr. Crawford, without the counsel of a lawyer, simply trusted the instructions of the police and appeared Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. to plead "not guilty" to what he describes as a "totally bogus" trespassing charge.

Upon arriving, he found that the police had not filed the charges so that there was no case number to which he might respond. He was instructed by a courtroom attendant under Magistrate James Martinek that he had to wait for the police to appear lest he be charged with a "failure to appear." After waiting a half hour, the time for the police to file the charges had expired and Mr. Crawford was free to leave with charges dismissed - since they were never filed.

Mr. Crawford reports:

Several days later, when I came back to see how one of Donna's hearings had gone, the courthouse sheriffs tried to serve me with an arrest warrant for failure to appear even AFTER the case had been dismissed. They had a third deputy and a car waiting to transport me to the jail. Evidently, the police conveniently found their dismissed citation after their own deadline, allegedly submitted it after their own deadline, never notified me, and expected me to appear for a late-submitted citation that was too over-aged to be considered and had already been dismissed, and that was never communicated to me in any way whatsoever.ⁱ

Well, it was enough of a delay to keep Randy Crawford away from Planned Parenthood long enough to arrest Donna Holman with one less witness. Only the husband and Mary Soloski were left to see Donna's actions and her arrest by Iowa City police. Was Crawford's arrest calculated to facilitate the "processing" of Donna Holman? It sure smells like it.

i Written statement emailed by Mr. Crawford to Michael Bray on 27 January, 2008