Abortion foe broke law in 2015 Planned Parenthood protest, Maine jury says

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/08/14/jury-abortion-foe-broke-civil-rights-law-in-2015-planned-parenthood-protest/

A Maine street preacher and abortion protester violated the state’s civil rights law when in Oct. 2015 he yelled loudly enough outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Portland that patients and workers were disrupted inside, a jury found Wednesday.

Brian Ingalls of Lisbon was sued by the state of Maine for violating the civil rights of people inside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Oct. 23, 2015, when his street preaching was loud enough to cause a disruption inside the counseling rooms and waiting area on the second floor of 443 Congress St., the building that has housed the clinic for years and is the frequent focus of pro-life demonstrations.

In a first-of-its kind case in Maine, a jury of eight men and one woman deliberated for less than two hours before they voted 6-3, finding that Ingalls violated this provision of state civil rights law.

There is no potential financial penalty or jail time, only a court order providing injunctive relief that will limit Ingalls’s activities around the clinic. The state suggested Ingalls be prohibited from coming within 50 feet of the clinic. However Justice MaryGay Kennedy, who oversaw the trial, must first hear related challenges to the Maine law that are expected to be brought by Ingalls’s attorney on different grounds before she can make any final order regarding restrictions on Ingalls’s conduct.

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