Retribution: The DOJ’s unjust prosecution of pro-lifer Bevelyn Williams

Pro-life activist Bevelyn Beatty Williams reported to federal prison in Alabama last week to serve out her sentencing on charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) during a two-day protest outside a New York City Planned Parenthood in June of 2020. Williams was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for an alleged crime for which she was not arrested at the time (despite police officers being on the scene), and for which no investigation was opened for more than two years.

Based on the timeline of events – and based on the fact that Williams’ sentence is extremely harsh compared to some sentences handed down for violent assaults as well as heinous crimes against children –  there is reason to believe that the charges brought against Williams were politically motivated.

Those who have directly assaulted children (or violently assaulted other adults) have received lighter sentencing than Williams, who sought to protect children before they were born and exacted violence upon no one.

What happened

Williams, along with her co-founder of At the Well Ministries, Edmee Chavannes, were protesting outside Planned Parenthood in Manhattan on June 19th and 20th in 2020 — a protest that was live-streamed on Facebook. During the protest, Williams stated that she would “terrorize” Planned Parenthood. As Live Action News previously reported, Williams’ attorney, Aaron Mysliwiec, a criminal and civil litigation lawyer with Miedel & Mysliwiec, stated that Williams’ words that day were “rhetorical,” adding that Williams and Chavannes were “not threatening anyone with weapons, not chaining themselves to doors[.]”

“First Amendment speech doesn’t require you to be meek and modest,” he said. “You are allowed to be loud and proud in somebody’s face and say things in a way that makes them uncomfortable.”

When a Planned Parenthood worker attempted to open the door of the abortion facility for a Planned Parenthood volunteer, the door hit Williams and she pushed back on it without looking behind her. According to Mysliwiec, who spoke with Live Action News, the Planned Parenthood staffer did not ask Williams to move out of the way of the door, or ask the NYPD officers who were present outside the facility to ask her to move. Instead, the staffer initiated physical contact with Williams, pushing the door into the back of Williams’ entire body. 

According to Mysliwiec, the staffer chose “to start a physical altercation into Bev’s back… an extra push on it into the back of Bev’s body.” He then described the events. “Bev is not looking at the door when the employee does that and reacts to that by pushing the door back. The allegation is that the employee’s hand was caught in the door and that Bev kept pressure for longer than necessary. Bev didn’t initiate the physical contact.” 

Mysliwiec added that the employee did not have the right to physically move Williams, and that this would be considered “an assault.” Mysliwiec noted, “In reaction to that assault, Bev pushed the door back. The intent there was not to violate the FACE Act or attempt to cause fear or injury, but to stop the person from slamming the door into her.”

New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were on the scene throughout the protest and neither determined that an assault had been carried out, nor did they arrest Williams or Chavannes. 

The injured staffer did not seek immediate medical attention for the injury, which was later described as a bad bruise. During Williams’ sentencing in court this year, she told the judge, “In my heart, I would have never wanted that woman’s hand to be hurt. I would have never wanted that. And I’m sorry for that. I am sorry for her hand being locked in the door.”

In addition, New York Attorney General Letitia James brought no criminal charges against either pro-lifer; neither did U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). It wasn’t until 2021 that AG James brought a civil suit against Williams and Chavannes, which was settled in April 2021. The two were required to stay outside of the abortion facility’s buffer zone or face a $5,000 fine. However, no criminal charges were ever filed and nothing would have ever come from it. 

But then, more than two years after the protest, a major ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court. And this changed everything.

Politically motivated charges filed

Two years after that June 2020 protest took place, and more than a year after the civil case was settled, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice decided to open an investigation into the June 2020 protest. 

The Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade in its June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and there is speculation that this had everything to do with the sudden charges brought against Williams and Chavannes — and other pro-life activists.

“What’s interesting about Bev’s case,” said Mysliwiec, “is the incident occurred in June of 2020 and the government did not prosecute that until after Dobbs in 2022. Based on the trial evidence, two years went by and nobody from the Southern District of New York’s prosecution team — including FBI agents — nobody even talked to the Planned Parenthood in Manhattan during those two years. It was not until a few weeks after the Dobbs decision that they began investigating. NYPD was on the scene in June of 2020. Planned Parenthood had lawyers in June of 2020.”

Before Dobbs, “Nobody from the U.S. attorney’s office does anything. Nobody thinks it’s worth their time,” he said, adding, “Then after Dobbs, one could argue, the district wanted a case to prosecute under FACE and went two years into the past. It begs the question: If this was such a serious incident, why didn’t they investigate in the weeks after it happened?” 

There’s only one reason Mysliewiec can see. “It’s because Dobbs hadn’t happened,” he said.“The key fact that changes their determination is what the Supreme Court Justices did, which should not be the reason to go and prosecute Bev Williams.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t until December of 2022, two and a half years after the fact, that the Biden-Harris DOJ charged Williams and Chavannes with conspiracy to violate the FACE Act. In addition, Williams was charged with violating the FACE Act through force, threats of force, and physical obstruction, resulting in bodily harm, and Chavannes was also charged with violating the FACE Act through threats of force and physical obstruction.

Also in 2022, the Biden-Harris DOJ began filing similar charges under the FACE Act against other pro-lifers — including in Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., the Eastern District of New York, and Tennessee.

“The DOJ decided to proactively seek out more FACE Act prosecutions for their own reasons,” Mysliwiec believes. “One might speculate that it was because they were unhappy with the Dobbs decision and wanted to take out that unhappiness on pro-life activists by charging FACE Act violations more aggressively than in the past. They felt, as a public policy matter, that they should enforce FACE more aggressively than in preceding years.”

Unreasonable penalty by any standard 

As previously reported by Live Action News, Chavannes was acquitted on all counts. However, while Williams was acquitted on the conspiracy charge, she was found guilty on the charge of violating the FACE Act through force, threats of force, and physical obstruction, resulting in bodily harm. 

She was sentenced to 41 months — more than three years — in federal prison. Hers is the second longest conviction of any of the pro-lifers recently charged with violating the FACE Act, and far longer and more severe than any penalty meted out against the few pro-abortion individuals recently charged by the DOJ with violating FACE. Even those who were convicted of “conspiracy against rights” in addition to FACE Act violations received more lenient sentencing. 

For example, in May, several pro-life activists were sentenced for FACE Act violations and “conspiracy against rights” in relation to a Washington, D.C. rescue, where an abortion facility staff member was injured, resulting in a sprained ankle. Pro-lifer Jonathan Darnel was sentenced to 34 months in prison, Heather Idoni was sentenced to 24 months, Herb Geraghty was sentenced to 27 months in prison, Jean Marshall was sentenced to 24 months in prison, Joan Bell was sentenced to 27 months in prison, John Hinshaw was sentenced to 21 months, Will Goodman was sentenced to 27 months, and Lauren Handy received the longest sentence of any pro-life activist — at 57 months. Paulette Harlow, a great-grandmother with significant health concerns, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison followed by 36 months of supervised release.

Again, all of these pro-life activists were convicted of “conspiracy against rights” while Williams was not — yet she received a longer sentence than all but Handy.

“The contrast is that with Bev’s case where — even assuming that the government’s version of the facts is correct — there was bruising of the wrist. The employee did not seek medical attention that day, a few days lapsed. Not a serious physical injury in terms of the way New York law defines it,” said Mysliwiec. “This is the kind of injury that in New York would be misdemeanor assault. I’ve handled 200+ assault cases. The normal thing that happens with cases of that nature is they are reduced to non-criminal offenses and no one gets a jail sentence. 99.9% of the time, the sentence would be no jail.” 

Three pro-abortion advocates who vandalized a pro-life pregnancy center in 2022 were sentenced to far less time than Williams and many of the other pro-life activists. Caleb Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate – in his case – employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers. His co-defendants, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera, were sentenced to 30 days in prison and 60 days of home detention.

Williams has a criminal history from the early 1990s, before her conversion to Christianity. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon, who imposed the sentencing, said she took seven previous convictions into account when determining jail time for Williams — including previous arrests related to her pro-life advocacy work.

Longer sentence than some child rapists

Given what Williams is charged with, it is striking to see that much lighter sentences have been handed down for far worse charges.

For example, in the same state — New York — Mohamed Shei was sentenced to just 180 days in jail for raping two young girls who were ages four and nine at the time. Shawn Jordan, a former Rochester police officer who pleaded guilty to raping a child, was sentenced to 10 years of probation and 10 jail weekends in August. Just this month, Michael Ruiz of Brooklyn was sentenced to three and a half years for second-degree assault and third-degree attempted assault for attacking a stranger on the street and a bystander who attempted to intervene. Two Niagara Falls women were sentenced to two years in prison for an assault at a restaurant. And in August, a Binghamton woman was sentenced to four and a half years in jail for beating another woman and pushing her down the stairs before beating her again, in an incident the judge called “the most violent attack” she has seen.

Long-term effects of the conviction and sentencing

Williams is appealing her conviction, as well as the decision of the judge to refuse her request to remain at home while her appeals case moves forward. In the meantime, she’ll be in prison, separated from her husband and their young daughter for the foreseeable future. On the day of her sentencing, Williams told the judge, “I don’t want to be away from my baby girl. No, I don’t. I love her so much. And she is so special to me, because she was the baby I didn’t kill, you understand? So I want to be there for her… and I want to be there for my husband … I ask for mercy…” 

But that mercy was not given. The judge denied Williams’ request to remain home on bail during her appeals process. 

Williams’ case has far-reaching implications.

“This case should be important to any person in the U.S. who cares about the government engaging in prosecutions based on viewpoints,” said Mysliwiec. “Regardless of whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, a centrist, or somebody who is left-wing/right-wing, this case should matter because the delay in prosecution and decision to begin investigation suggests strongly that in some way this case is retaliation by the executive branch (DOJ) for a Supreme Court decision that they didn’t like.”

“And that should worry everyone in the U.S.,” he said, “because there will be a time where a party controls the executive branch that’s not your party and a person is president or runs DOJ who does not hold your same beliefs, and you need to decide if it’s acceptable for them to prosecute you because they have different views than you do.”

He said it’s also important for the people who have a pro-life viewpoint to realize that the delayed investigation into Williams and her conviction and sentencing is “another chapter in the battle that’s playing out on the [abortion] issue with states and in courtrooms around the country.”

“This is going to be a long fight,” said Mysliwiec. “It’s going to take a lot of time and energy and it’s taking a huge toll on Bev and her family.”

To donate to Bevelyn Williams’ defense and to support her family, click here. 

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