Phillip 'Flip' Benham Found Guilty Of Stalking Abortion Doctor In North Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A jury found a North Carolina preacher guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of "wanted" posters with the physician's name and photo on it.

Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes Friday before finding Rev. Phillip "Flip" Benham, director of Concord-based Operation Save America, guilty of misdemeanor stalking, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Benham, 62, was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to stop any intimidating behaviors.

"I can't speak. I can't get within 500 feet," Benham said outside court, holding his Bible. "They've stolen from innocent babies a voice that has spoken for them."

Prosecutors said Benham distributed photos with the names and photos of several Charlotte doctors who perform abortions and the words "Wanted ... By Christ, to Stop Killing Babies."

Benham knew that doctors in other places had been killed after similar posters were made, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Northrup said.

"What would a reasonable person think if they saw `Wanted' on a poster with their picture on it?" Northrup said.

The doctor, who wasn't named by the newspaper, was so afraid that anti-abortion activists might attack him that he has tinted his car windows, drives several different routes to work and doesn't park in his designated space at the three clinics where he works, Northrup said.

Benham's attorney filed a notice to appeal immediately after the verdict, saying his client shouldn't be associated with activists who have turned to violence.

"This case is not about the flashpoint of abortion, it's about what Mr. Benham did or did not do," Toussaint Romain said.

Benham had never even met the doctor in person until they saw each other in court, Romain said.

Benham said he will respect the verdict, but won't stop protesting at other abortion clinics. And he expects the protests outside the doctor's clinics to continue too.

"There will be other people who will come and stand up for what's right," Benham said.

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Comments

[Frank-Stewart]

08:32 PM on 08/28/2011

Caught again - http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/08/28/2561170/minister-charged-with-noise-ordinance.html

[Ebanius]

11:08 AM on 08/29/2011

Wow! This is my first time hearing about this guy from Concord, NC. CRAZY

[anthonybrown]

11:15 AM on 07/08/2011

Where's the ALCU in this, sending their high-priced legal teams to defend this man? Where's their oft-repeated line "All speech must be protected, no matter how repugnant."?

Strange.

[tman418]

11:20 PM on 07/07/2011

I bet a "pro-life" president would give this guy a pardon, even if he murdered an abortion doctor. Just like the way that Huckabee heavily influenced the decision to get Wayne DuMond out of prison, the man who raped a distant relative of Bill Clinton.

[wittyprof]

09:13 PM on 07/07/2011

I think Sinclair Lewis might just need an update: "When fascism comes to American, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross, and screaming about 'unborn babies'."

[OlongapoEd]

04:06 PM on 07/05/2011

I am most definitely *not* impressed with the education level of those on the right. True, there are still a few pseudo-intellectuals, but the reality is that conservatism in the US is an increasingly anti-intellectual set of ideologies. So, saying that those on the right are well enough educated to realize that the US can't allow the "wrong" people to continue cranking out babies is a highly dubious proposition even if we ignore the obviously bigoted nature of the assertion. The assertion has more than a whiff of forced sterilizations (and even forced abortions) at its core.

[Choicelady320]

01:13 AM on 07/05/2011

Flip got PROBATION? He stalked and provided 'true threats' to this doctor and he got PROBATION??? In Wichita 2001 he consorted without reservation with the Army of God folks, those lovely souls who think God told them to blow away doctors and other people they don't like. Flip never once repudiated the would-be assassins, and now he is convicted but gets PROBATION? Allow me to say that if anyone is harmed by Flip or his allies, there will be major repurcussions legally for this blow off of justice. Flip should be doing time - hard time - for what he's done. If he'd stalked and threatened a woman, he would be in jail. No difference here. He and his followers are major hypocrites who celebrate death of living human beings they think they have the right to judge. Be afraid when he's walking in your neighborhood - he has not a scrap of conscience.

[NancyY]

08:33 AM on 07/05/2011

I think the matter went to the criminal court which did not count the posters as a direct threat. But, if the doctor wanted to, he could take the matter to the civil court and probably win.

I don't care how much you may dislike "Flip", he still has his rights to freedom of speech. The courts evidently saw this, but let him know that his right to freedom of speech ended where the doctor's right to privacy began.

[Jeffin90019]

09:06 PM on 07/04/2011

What would happen if an abortion doctor started stalking the right to life krist kooks? Handing out brochures with "Wanted" on them, published their names, photos and addresses? Maybe hanging around where their kids go to school. The right to life zealots aren't saving the unborn; they are threatening and terrorizing the living with their religious agenda.

[LaurieAnn]

05:11 PM on 07/04/2011

Glad to hear of the conviction; it is the correct decision no matter how the jurors feel about elective abortions.  Stalking is a criminal act no matter what the reason.

[Choicelady320]

01:14 AM on 07/05/2011

But the judge gave Flip PROBATION. Fat lot of good that will do.

[SmileAndActNice]

04:48 PM on 07/04/2011

History Lesson: The truth about Roe V Wade that you probably don't know.

Myth: RoeVWade was narrowly squeaked by due to liberal activists legislating from the bench!
Fact: RoeVWade was a landslide 7-2 decision on a conservative majority court.

Myth: RoeVWade struck down a Texas Law that made abortion illegal!
Fact: Abortion was perfectly legal in Texas. Jane Roe could have legally aborted by a variety of traditional methods that date back to the founding of this country. Dr Hallford, however, could not legally assist her. If he did, he would be fined and *nothing whatsoever would happen to Jane*. The law specifically stated that the woman could not be found guilty or treated as an accomplice.

Myth: We used to have laws stopping abortion! Thats normal!
Fact: No it isn't. A few decades before RoeVWade a bunch of laws popped up forbidding medical doctors from performing abortions. Modern Medicine was still an awkward teenager. It didn't know about Germ Theory. It didn't even know how important washing your hands was yet. Doctors offering abortion services were killing lots of women with infection.

So these laws were put in place *for the protection of the mother*. The Supreme Court found that advances in medicine made them no longer appropriate.

[SmileAndActNice]

06:24 PM on 07/04/2011

Citations from the majority opinion of Roe V Wade:

The Stuff the Court was actually thinking about!

http://supreme.justia.com/us/410/113/case.html

The point of the law was safety of the mother. Not the fetus.
-----
When most criminal abortion laws were first enacted, the procedure was a hazardous one for the woman. This was particularly true prior to the development of antisepsis. Antiseptic techniques, of course, were based on discoveries by Lister, Pasteur, and others first announced in 1867, but were not generally accepted and employed until about the turn of the century. Abortion mortality was high. Even after 1900, and perhaps until as late as the development of antibiotics in the 1940's, standard modern techniques such as dilation and curettage were not nearly so safe as they are today.
-----
------
in Texas, the woman is not a principal or an accomplice with respect to an abortion upon her. If the fetus is a person, why is the woman not a principal or an accomplice?
-----

Supreme's noticed that the US justice system can't keep up with pregnancy -
-----
But when, as here, pregnancy is a significant fact in the litigation, the normal 266-day human gestation period is so short that the pregnancy will come to term before the usual appellate process is complete. If that termination makes a case moot, pregnancy litigation seldom will survive much beyond the trial stage, and appellate review will be effectively denied. Our law should not be that rigid.
-----

[lodazal]

04:39 PM on 07/04/2011

18 months of probation?! Wanted posters listing all of the doctors particulars and the constant stress gets this creep 18 months probation. Stalk a celebrity and you're likely to get jail time! Strange priorities we have here in the U.S.A.!

[WorkhelpWorkhelp]

04:33 PM on 07/04/2011

Terrorist !!!!

TERRORIST!!!!!!

Not "activist."

[Mary Ellen Mayo]

05:18 PM on 07/17/2011

I sure felt terrorized when I came to church this morning and found them picketing and yelling outside it....at both entrances to the campus...we had to cancel the children's part of the service and send them straight to where they go during worship...I'm assuming Benham is here with them. They should up that stalking to a felony and restrict his ability to travel...We are a liberal congregation in Florida...

[glddraco]

02:23 PM on 07/04/2011

If this preacher stalked me well lets just say he'd disapear. I remember how one preacher would come to my door every day to try to get me in his church and finally I set up a Satanic altar and said to come right in. He did and totally freaked out, never bothered me again.

[Choicelady320]

01:20 AM on 07/05/2011

Does that work with vacuum cleaner sales people, too?

[riverhouse]

12:38 PM on 07/04/2011

That is domestic terrorism and I'm glad charges were brought and pleased that the jury found him guilty. More of these nutters need to be brought before juries and maybe we'd have fewer doctors shot through their kitchen windows while eating soup with their children or murdered while ushering in church. These people are as dangerous as any foreign terrorist and they are our very own.

[NancyY]

07:44 AM on 07/04/2011

I think this type of behavior is more about controlling others than it is about following Christ. This preacher hasn't murdered the abortion doctor, but he's basically advocating that the man be murdered.

[OlongapoEd]

03:41 PM on 07/04/2011

You can bet your bottom Dollar that there are plenty on the right who are bitterly disappointed that nobody has yet used a "Second Amendment remedy" against the doctor.

[NancyY]

12:44 AM on 07/05/2011

Yeah, I'll bet my bottom dollar, because your accusation about "people on the right" does not take into account that a huge number of "people on the right" are well educated enough to realize that there is no way this country could support all of the babies born out of wedlock or in dangerous situations on top of all the illegals, asylees and refugees we already have. There's only so many that can fit in a boat until it sinks.

[OlongapoEd]

03:43 PM on 07/04/2011

It is a lead pipe cinch that there are plenty of people on the right who are very disappointed that nobody has used a "Sec_ond Amen_dment reme_dy" against the doctor.

[loco48]

07:15 AM on 07/04/2011

Had I been aborted I would not have known and nor would I care.