Informant Told About Bombings : Ex-Church Member Didn’t Believe in Violence to Help Stop Abortions

The charges against the Rev. Dorman Owens and six of his fundamentalist Baptist followers for conspiring to bomb an abortion clinic were set in motion in May when a new church member who “didn’t believe the way to stop abortion is by bombing” left the congregation and tipped off police, according to the lead police investigator in the case.

In an interview with The Times on Friday, San Diego Police Detective Leslie Oberlies also gave a dramatic account of how the key suspect in the case, 32-year-old Eric Everett Svelmoe, on the night of his arrest in July, said that his religious beliefs would not allow him to lie about building the bomb and depositing it at the clinic.

Oberlies said that Svelmoe told him that Owens had given him “tacit approval” for the attempted bombing when the preacher advised a tight-knit group of his followers that “something had to be done to stop abortions.”

Stakeout in July

Oberlies, a San Diego Police Department criminal intelligence officer, said that for three nights in a row last July, he led a team of six San Diego intelligence officers in watching members of the Bible Missionary Fellowship Church in Santee. Acting on a series of tips from an informant, the undercover officers staked out the Family Planning Associates Medical Group in the 6400 block of Alvarado.

On the fourth night, July 27, Oberlies said he was working alone when he saw Svelmoe--wearing a woman’s wig and his face blackened with camouflage--deposit the bomb at the clinic. He said he chased Svelmoe in his car and arrested him in El Cajon. He said he then handcuffed Svelmoe and returned him to the clinic parking lot, where he grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him and asked him point blank if there was a bomb inside.

“I looked up at him and I said, ‘Boy, do you go to church?’ ” Oberlies said. “He smiled at me and I smiled right back at him. He knew right then his goose was cooked. He said, ‘Sure I do.’

“He told me that bomb was up there and that if it ain’t gone off by now, it ain’t going to. I asked him again if he was lying to me.

“ ‘No sir,’ he said. ‘I don’t lie.’ ”

Oberlies said he then ran up the stairs and found a crudely fashioned bomb and gas tank on a second-floor landing. He said the bomb actually would have detonated and destroyed much of the building had not the candle placed next to the fuse blown out.

Svelmoe was placed under arrest and taken to police headquarters, where Oberlies questioned him further.

Oberlies said that unlike many people under arrest, Svelmoe was calm and unanimated. He said Svelmoe did not attempt to create an alibi, try to blame others or demand to see a lawyer. He said Svelmoe tried to answer all of the questions by police and when he did not know an answer, he would truthfully say so.

“Eric Svelmoe would not lie,” Oberlies said. “It’s against his religion. He would never tell me a lie. He’s so honest and forthright.”

Shortly after his arrest, Svelmoe admitted in a federal court affidavit that he had manufactured the pipe bomb at his mobile home in El Cajon earlier in the afternoon of his arrest.

Oberlies said Svelmoe learned to make the bomb after obtaining a leaflet from a right-wing survivalist organization. Svelmoe said in the affidavit that he purchased the bomb components in the San Diego area.

Svelmoe remains in custody at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center, charged with various federal violations of firearms and explosives laws.

On Nov. 5, Owens, pastor of the Bible Missionary Fellowship Church in Santee, and six of his other followers, including a friend of the informant, were indicted by federal authorities for conspiring to bomb the clinic. Owens is also accused of witness tampering as a result of visits he made to Svelmoe in prison. He remains in custody.

Bombing Plans

According to the indictment, all seven defendants planned the bombing during May and July of this year, with meetings allegedly occurring both at the church and at Owens’ home in El Cajon.

The church and its congregation are well known for regularly picketing family-planning and abortion clinics and for conducting anti-homosexual demonstrations.

As a member of the police intelligence unit, Oberlies said that he has over the years monitored the activities of Owens and the Bible Missionary Fellowship Church. He said he has watched members of the church picket women’s clinics and stage rallies against homosexual groups and at X-rated adult bookstores.

In May, when the informant contacted police, Oberlies increased police surveillance of the church group.

He said the informant and a friend had recently joined the church. While the friend enthusiastically embraced the church’s teaching and anti-abortion philosophy, the informant began to draw away from the church because of the alleged bombing plot.

He said the informant cooperated with police throughout the summer. Even after quitting the church altogether, the informant continued to receive detailed information about plans for the bomb, how it was being made and when and where it would be delivered, Oberlies said.

The informant, Oberlies said, “is a nice Christian who is very anti-abortion. Always has been and always will be. But the informant doesn’t believe the way to stop abortion is by bombing.”

Basically, he added, the informant “is a very nice person and feels terrible about” assisting in the arrest of friends in the church. But, Oberlies said, the informant also did not want the bombing to occur.

Turning informant, Oberlies said, “was the lesser of two evils.”