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.
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 in May 2022, Green shattered a window at the clinic, filled aluminum baking pans with gasoline, and finally 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, the business would not be able to start seeing patients until April.
On the night of the incident, a masked woman wearing a hooded shirt was captured inside the clinic building on surveillance footage. The footage was released by authorities immediately after the fire.
Green was not 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 last year to open in Casper, Wyoming, was giving her “anxiety and nightmares,” which prompted her 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.
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 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-based 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 heard.
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