Abortion Foe Admits Setting Clinics On Fire Under Plea Bargain, Wenatchee Man Faces Almost Seven Years Behind Bars
An antiabortion activist described by prosecutors as a “terrorist” pleaded guilty Tuesday to setting fires at seven abortion clinics in four Western states, including Idaho.
Under the terms of a plea agreement with the government, retired insurance company executive Richard T. Andrews faces nearly seven years in prison for his guilty plea to eight counts of arson.
“Andrews is now in custody and will be sent to a federal prison in April,” U.S. Attorney Paul Seave told a news conference.
“His career as a terrorist is now over, and we remain firm in our resolve to prosecute anyone who attempts to commit an act of violence against an abortion clinic,” Seave said.
Andrews, 60, of Wenatchee, targeted clinics in California, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In each of the attacks, investigators found a red plastic gasoline can wrapped in a dark garbage bag.
Andrews stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he was questioned by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton. He acknowledged his responsibility for the fires and his understanding of the agreement with the government but made no other statement.
His sentencing is scheduled for April 21.
Under the terms of the agreement, Andrews faces a maximum of 81 months in prison and three years of probation. He will be ordered to pay a required $50 in restitution on each count but probably will not be assessed a fine. Karlton said Andrews probably could not pay any fine that might be assessed.
Andrews, who had been free on $35,000 bond, was immediately taken into custody.
When Andrews was stopped in Vancouver, Wash., on June 26, 1996, state troopers found a butane torch, a road flare, plastic pipe, a respirator and a Bible. In the car’s trunk, they found red plastic gasoline containers wrapped in dark plastic garbage bags.
Police believe he was en route to a clinic in Portland. Prosecutors also had planned to use traffic tickets, mileage records and canceled checks to show that Andrews was responsible for the fires.
Andrews is the former leader of a Wenatchee group called the Christian Coalition for Public Policy that worked successfully to get Wenatchee Valley Clinic doctors to stop performing abortions in 1985.
He was stopped for speeding early on Jan. 18, 1992, in North Idaho. Several hours later he set fire to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Helena.
Five months after the Helena fire, a clinic in Redding, Calif., was set afire. Nine months later, a clinic in Missoula, Mont., burned to the ground. A clinic in Boise followed in May 1993.
The fires stopped for more than a year, but in October 1994 Andrews set three clinic fires in as many days. The same Redding clinic targeted in 1992 was torched again on Oct. 9, as was a clinic in nearby Chico, Calif. That was followed by a fire Oct. 11 at a clinic in Kalispell, Mont. The last fire was in September 1995 at a clinic in Jackson, Wyo.