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Anti-abortion lawyer Cyrus Zal reported Friday to San Diego County Jail to begin serving a 290-day sentence for repeatedly ignoring a judge’s orders not to discuss abortion at a trial last February in El Cajon.
Zal, 42, a Folsom-based lawyer, spent Friday arranging meetings with reporters and issuing press releases to publicize his term. He said in a statement that he would “gladly” serve the jail term to help draw attention to the issue of abortion.
Zal, former general counsel to the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, is known for his ever-present Bible and for making it clear that he wishes to use the trials of abortion protesters as a platform for condemning and debating abortion.
At the February trial, Zal represented six anti-abortion advocates accused of trespassing last Oct. 21 at a La Mesa medical clinic. All six were convicted of trespass.
El Cajon Municipal Court Judge Larrie R. Brainard imposed the 290-day term after citing Zal for contempt 20 times for disobeying his order not to bring up abortion. The trial involved a question of trespass, not abortion, Brainard said.
Zal appealed the sentence to the California Supreme Court. In a July 18 decision, the court rejected his appeal.
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