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Buffalo News Reporter Testified in James Kopp Trial

By Eileen Buckley

Buffalo, NY – Buffalo News reporter testified about his article that contained the jail house confession of James Kopp.

The anti-abortion extremist is already serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian. But now Kopp is being tried on federal firearm charges and trying to prevent Slepian from performing reproductive services.

News reporter Dan Herbeck was called by the government to testify about parts of a November 2002 article that he wrote. It was in that article that Kopp admitted to the Slepian shooting. Under cross examination, Kopp took issue with Herbeck's use of the words kill, confession and slain, words Kopp claims he never said during the News interview.

Kopp also questioned his own quotes that he said he "did it" and admitted it. But Herbeck says that is what he interrupted as a reporter.

The Buffalo News attempted to quash the subpoena on grounds of the First Amendment. It was denied, but the court agreed to limit questions to only material that was not in violation of First Amendment principles.

Click the "listen" icon above to hear Eileen Buckley's story now or use your podcasting software to download it to your computer or iPod.