Virginia Family Sues Abortion Clinic and Social Services for Pressuring Daughter to Abort

A 15-year-old girl and her parents are suing a Virginia abortion business and a county social services department for pressuring the minor into abortion.

The abortion occurred around Jan 19, 2023. The 15-year-old was 11 weeks pregnant at the time.

According to the lawsuit, the daughter of Charles RemireLee Mullins and Randa Diane Hagy was pressured into an abortion against her wishes. The civil lawsuit lists Bristol Women's Health and the Dickenson County Department of Social Services (DSS) as defendants. The center's director, the physician on staff, the DSS worker, and the DSS director are also named in the lawsuit.

Virginia law requires minors to obtain consent from a parent or guardian before having an abortion unless they receive special permission from a judge. The suit alleges that a bypass was never obtained, and even the daughter refused to cooperate until she was at an abortion appointment scheduled by DSS.

The lawsuit seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $5.4 million in punitive damages.

Diane Derzis, the owner of Bristol Women's Health, is currently facing a separate lawsuit from the facility's landlords, who claim that they were misled about how the space would be used. Derzis was also the owner of Jackson Women's Health Organization, the facility that sued Mississippi in the Supreme Court Case overturning Roe v. Wade.

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US Lawmakers Introduce More Abortion Bills

Legislators in the US Senate and House of Representatives continue to introduce abortion legislation in the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson. Two new bills being considered by Congress would have drastic effects on abortion in America.

The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Care Act (EACH Act) would end Hyde Amendment protections and allow government-subsidized abortion through government insurance plans such as Medicaid. The EACH Act was introduced by Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

Legislators advocating for the passage of the EACH Act characterized the Hyde Amendment as racist language designed to oppress low-income and minority groups. The Hyde Amendment is a set of legislative language attached to spending bills preventing tax dollars from paying for abortions.

Click here to read more about the EACH Act.

On the other hand, pro-life senators introduced the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act, which would permanently ban federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape or when the mother's life is at risk. In direct contrast to the EACH Act, this legislation would make Hyde Amendment protections permanent. It would also end taxpayer subsidies for abortion through the Affordable Care Act.

Click here to read more about the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

Sen. Duckworth Introduces Bill Creating Right to Assisted Reproductive Technology

US legislators have introduced a bill that would create a right to assisted reproductive technology (ART) including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and surrogacy.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), and Rep Susan Wild (D-PA) introduced the Right to Build Families Act of 2022 in December. It is on the docket for consideration this year.

“Right now, we’re seeing within the anti-choice community a plot to push for new, more radical policies like the so-called 'personhood bills' that would go even further toward controlling [people’s] bodies,” Duckworth told Parents. These efforts could effectively ban fertility treatments like IVF that many Americans need to start or grow their families.”

Children created during IVF and surrogacy are treated as commodities to be bought and sold. Excess embryos conceived for IVF are often frozen indefinitely or destroyed. Legislation creating a right to ART would enable even more abuse and death than already exists in the industry.

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Department of Defense to Spend Tax Dollars on Abortion Travel

The US Department of Defense (DoD) publicly released new policies that would use taxpayer dollars to pay the travel expenses for military members and dependents who travel to obtain elective abortions.

Three policies introduced by the DoD on Feb 16 are set to go into effect within 30 days of publication. According to a press release, these policies will change how the DoD handles "command notification of pregnancy, administrative absence for non-covered reproductive health care, and travel allowances for non-covered reproductive health care."

The first policy gives women in service until 20 weeks gestation to inform their commanders that they are pregnant. The policy advises women seeking abortions to consult with a DoD health care provider who can place them on temporary non-deployable status until after the abortion is complete.

The second policy provides 21 days of administrative absence for non-covered reproductive health care (such as elective abortions). A service member can also request 21 days of administrative absence to accompany a dependent to a non-covered abortion.

The third policy provides transportation allowances to pay the transportation expenses of servicemembers and their dependents to access non-covered procedures not offered in the local area. These allowance funds can cover lodging, transportation, and meals.

These are just the most recent attempts by the Biden administration to use the federal rulemaking process to advance the pro-abortion agenda and undermine the laws of pro-life states. Biden has also abused this power to offer illegal abortions at VA facilities.

The DoD press release announcing the policies stated, "Our Service members and their families do not control where they are stationed, and due to the nature of military service, are frequently required to travel or move to meet operational requirements. The efforts taken by the Department today will not only ensure that Service members and their families are afforded time and flexibility to make private health care decisions, but will also ensure Service members are able to access non-covered reproductive health care regardless of where they are stationed."

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Federal Museums Apologize for Pro-Life Censorship

On Jan 20, 2023, a group of Catholic high school students and their chaperones were kicked out of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for wearing clothing with pro-life messages. 

The students traveled from Our Lady of the Rosary School in Greenville, South Carolina to Washington D.C. to attend the annual National March for Life. Among other pro-life attire, the group wore matching blue beanies with the words "Rosary PRO-LIFE." Staff at the federally-operated museum told the group that they must remove their hats or leave the premises. When the students refused to do so, staff escorted them out of the museum.

The American Center for Law and Justice, representing the parents of some of the students involved, alleged that staff mocked and swore at the students while claiming that the museum was a "neutral zone" where political or religious messages were prohibited.

In a similar dispute, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by four March for Life participants. These advocates were told to remove or cover clothing with pro-life messages while visiting the National Archives Museum.

On Feb 14, the NARA filed a proposed consent agreement to settle the lawsuit by giving the pro-life advocates private tours and apologizing to them in person.

Both institutions have issued public apologies and admitted to violating the pro-lifers' first amendment rights.

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Pro-Life Congress Members Introduce Resolution to End Abortions at VA Facilities

Pro-life legislators have introduced a resolution that aims to end President Biden's policy of offering taxpayer-funded abortions at Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) introduced the joint resolution.

“Using our VA medical facilities to provide publicly-funded abortions is an unconstitutional abuse of the system, and it will not be tolerated,” Tuberville told Fox News Digital. “No taxpayer should be forced to pay for abortion services that disregard the will of millions of Americans in states with legal protections for life, rightfully upheld by the Supreme Court last year. The interim final rule highlights this administration’s willingness to ignore the law and exploit limited federal resources to serve their extreme abortion agenda.”

Over 60 members of Congress signed the resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. The law gives Congress the power to review and block rules issued by federal agencies.

"The Biden Administration continues to advance their radical abortion on demand agenda, this time through the Department of Veterans Affairs," Cloud told Fox News Digital. "Directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to perform abortions is a clear abuse of the law and it forces taxpayers to fund abortions, something the majority of Americans oppose. I will always be a voice for the unborn and oppose taxpayer funded abortions."

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Senators Introduce Bill to Legalize Abortion Nationwide

Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to introduce the "Reproductive Freedom for All Act." This bill would create a federal right to abortion.

“Congress must restore women’s rights to make personal health care decisions,” Kaine said in a press release. “In the wake of the Dobbs decision, we have seen just how necessary Roe v. Wade was, which is why I’ve worked with my colleagues to find common ground on this bipartisan compromise that would restore Roe’s protections. The Reproductive Freedom For All Act is much-needed legislation to protect a woman’s freedom to choose.”

Collins and Murkowski previously voted against the pro-abortion Women's Health Protection Act (WHPA) because the bill went much further than codifying Roe v. Wade. The WHPA would have prevented states from enforcing any limits on abortion whatsoever. Even further, it would have prevented states from restricting government funding of abortion.

Instead, the Reproductive Freedom for All Act would ban abortion restrictions before viability. While less harsh than the WHPA, the Roe standard still denied millions of unborn children the basic human right to life.

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New Associated Press Guidelines tell Reporters to call CPCs "Anti-abortion Centers"

A new change to the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook tells journalists to use the term "anti-abortion centers" instead of "crisis pregnancy centers" when discussing pro-life pregnancy clinics.

The AP Stylebook is used by journalists throughout the industry, and it is often a part of the curriculum used by journalism courses in college settings.

New guidelines recommend the use of the terms anti-abortion counseling centers, "crisis pregnancy centers" (with quotation marks) that oppose abortions, and anti-abortion centers. AP deems these terms acceptable to describe "centers set up to divert or discourage women from having abortions."

“If using the term anti-abortion center,” the guidelines read, “explain later that these often are known as ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ and that their aim is to dissuade people from getting an abortion.”

The guidelines urge journalists to “avoid potentially misleading terms such as pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy counseling centers,” because “these terms don’t convey that the centers’ general aim is to prevent abortions.”

AP acknowledges in the guidelines that the centers provide "counseling, material support and/or housing," but endorses this new language because it believes the centers' primary purpose is to “divert or discourage women from having abortions.”

The new guidelines go on to endorse the use of "anti-abortion" and "abortion rights" instead of "pro-life" and "pro-choice." It tells journalists to gaslight the public by using the term "cardiac activity" instead of "fetal heartbeat. AP argues that "the embryo isn't yet a fetus and it has only begun forming a rudimentary heart."

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New Champaign Abortion Clinic Offers Abortion up to Six Months

On Feb 11, a new late-term abortion business named Equity Clinic opened in Champaign. Equity clinic offers abortion through 23 weeks and six days gestation, and it functions as a training center for abortionists.

The clinic's website reads, “Equity Clinic provides high-quality, compassionate reproductive health care, including first- and second-trimester abortions and contraception, while ensuring future access to care by teaching learners within our practice.”

Equity clinic offers the abortion pill regimen through 10 weeks gestation and surgical abortions through 23 weeks and six days gestation. Abortions at this stage of development use the dilation and evacuation procedure. Pro-life advocates often call these abortions "dismemberment abortions." This is because an abortionist uses metal forceps to tear the unborn child apart and remove each piece from the mother's womb. As the body is torn apart, the child bleeds to death.

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Illinois Bill would Give Attorney General the Power to Investigate and Charge CPCs at-will

Sen Celina Villanueva (D-12)

SB 1909, introduced to the Illinois General Assembly by Sen. Celina Villanueva (D-12), reintroduces provisions targeting crisis pregnancy centers for prosecution.

Titled the "Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act," this bill would prohibit "a limited services pregnancy center from using or employing any deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or misrepresentation, or the concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact" with the intent to "interfere" with a person trying to access abortion or "emergency contraception" (which can act as an abortifacient).

SB1909 would enable the Attorney General to investigate a crisis pregnancy clinic whenever "the Attorney General believes it to be in the public interest that an investigation should be made to ascertain whether a limited services pregnancy center has engaged in, is engaging in, or is about to engage in, any practice declared to be unlawful by the Act."

The bill would also allow "any party aggrieved by a violation of the Act to bring an action against any limited services pregnancy center that has committed such a violation, in which the court may award actual damages and other relief the court deems proper." These damages would be separate from a civil penalty of up to $50,000.

These provisions were initially introduced during last month's lame-duck session as an amendment to HB4664. The Senate amended HB4664 so that its contents were entirely replaced with new policies designed to further pro-abortion goals. The legislative language used last month would have also targeted sidewalk counselors and pro-life protestors. That particular amendment did not make it into the final version of HB4664, but the policy has now returned in the form of a new bill.

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Yelp Changes Discriminatory Policy Against Crisis Pregnancy Centers after Attorneys General Threaten Legal Action

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R)

After facing pressure from 24 state attorneys general, Yelp changed its policy discriminating against crisis pregnancy centers in online consumer notices.

When a user looked up a crisis pregnancy center on Yelp's website, the site presented a notice stating that crisis pregnancy centers "typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite." Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron led a group of 24 state attorneys general in condemning this discriminatory practice against pro-life clinics.

“Discriminating against the services of crisis pregnancy centers hinders women and families from accessing the life-affirming care and support that they need,” said Attorney General Cameron. “Yelp’s decision to issue warnings on the profiles of crisis pregnancy centers but not on Planned Parenthood facility profiles places politics above the health and wellness of women and children, and we will do everything in our power to stop this discrimination.”

“The fact that Yelp has apparently applied the Consumer Notice only to crisis pregnancy centers means that Yelp has singled out crisis pregnancy centers for disparate treatment,” read a letter sent to Yelp by the coalition of attorneys general. “This sort of discrimination is unacceptable.”

On February 9, two days after the letter was sent to Yelp, the company changed the consumer notices on its website. The notices now read, “This is a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Crisis Pregnancy Centers do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion providers.”

Yelp announced the change in a letter of its own. The letter denies claims that Yelp's policy was discriminatory, but describes its change as a "good faith effort to address [the attorneys generals'] concerns."

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Court Rules Pro-Life Group Owes Almost $1 Million to Planned Parenthood for Protests

Judge Tim Fennessy of Spokane County Superior Court ruled on Feb. 7 that a pro-life group must pay nearly $1 million to Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho.

The pro-life group, which calls itself "The Church at Planned Parenthood," was ordered by Fennessy to pay $110,000 in civil damages and $850,000 in legal fees to the abortion business. He ruled that the group "willfully or recklessly" disrupted the normal functioning of a healthcare facility by making noise that "unreasonably disturbs the peace within the facility."

The Church at Planned Parenthood met across the street from a Planned Parenthood clinic once per month. It held worship services there during the evenings after the facility closed.

“I saw firsthand that this group abides by the law,” Esther Ripplinger told CNA. Ripplinger is the executive director of Human Life of Washington, the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.  “They are on public property and very courteous to anyone. They meet in the evenings after hours, so there’s no disruption to the business whatsoever. I saw that firsthand. They’re extremely polite to pedestrians.”

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Biden Asks Congress to Pass Pro-Abortion "Equality Act"

During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass the Equality Act. This pro-abortion bill would end conscience protections for doctors and force taxpayers to fund abortion.

The Equality Act would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by defining pro-life laws and conscience protections as discrimination.

The Equality Act was considered by Congress in 2021. At the time, Jennifer Popik, director of federal legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, said, “If enacted, [the Equality Act] would open the door for widespread litigation wherein any attempt to restrict abortion, including the funding of abortion, would constitute discrimination.”

“Forcing health care providers to perform abortions in violation of their conscience rights clearly violates the Constitution,” said NRLC President Carol Tobias. “But pro-abortion forces and their allies in Congress are more concerned about expanding access to abortion.”

State of the Union: Biden Demands Legislators Codify Roe and Calls Pro-Life Laws "Extreme"

During President Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday, Biden demanded that Congress pass legislation creating a federal right to abortion. He called pro-life legislation "extreme," and promised to veto any law that would ban abortion.

A transcript published by the White House can be read here.

In his speech, Biden said,

"Congress must restore the right the Supreme Court took away last year and codify Roe v. Wade to protect every woman’s constitutional right to choose.

The Vice President and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. 

Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it."

Dobbs v. Jackson overturned the precedent of Roe v. Wade last year by affirming that the Constitution does not contain a right to abortion. This allowed states to democratically pass and enforce their own laws governing abortion. By passing federal legislation, Biden and other pro-abortion activists hope to override any laws that protect unborn children from abortion.

Biden's statement that he is using his office's power to protect the abortion industry rings true. The Food and Drug Administration has loosened abortion regulations, the Department of Justice is prosecuting pro-life activists, and the Department of Veterans Affairs is using its resources to offer abortion to veterans and their dependents.

Biden's promise to veto any bill prohibiting abortion is designed moreso to feign strength than anything else. It is unlikely that the pro-abortion majority in the US Senate led by majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-IL) would ever send the president legislation banning abortion.

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Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City Hospitalizes Another Patient

Hope Clinic for Women patient being pushed to the
emergency room in a wheelchair by clinic escorts
photo from Operation Rescue

On February 4, a patient at the Hope Clinic for Women abortion facility in Granite City, Illinois was wheeled across the street to the Gateway Regional Medical Center.

Pro-life advocates on the sidewalk photographed the incident and reported it to Operation Rescue, an organization that records medical emergencies caused by abortion businesses. Operation Rescue noted that most botched abortion patients from Hope Clinic are transported to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis Missouri.

Since January of 2022, Operation Rescue has documented seven medical emergencies at Hope Clinic. Two of these emergencies occurred as recently as Nov. 8 and Nov. 9.

The clinic commits abortions up to 24 weeks gestation.

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Federal Judge Says 13th Amendment May Contain "Right to Abortion"

Federal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a February 6 order that the Thirteenth Amendment "might contain some right to access [abortion].”

The court order concerns a federal case against 10 pro-life protestors indicted on FACE Act charges for entering a Washington DC abortion facility in October 2020. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the administration's charges based on the US Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and its statement that "the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion."

Kollar-Kotelly's court order reads,

As a threshold matter, and without the benefit of full briefing, it appears that Defendant’s constitutional argument is predicated on the false legal premise that the predicate statute at issue in the [113] Superseding Indictment only regulates access to abortion. In fact, it regulates a broad category of “reproductive health services,” including, among other things, “counselling or referral services.” See 18 U.S.C. § 248(5). Nevertheless, to the extent that Defendants seek resolution of this matter via a constitutional holding, the Court will require additional briefing. 

The judge wrote that the US Supreme Court only ruled on whether the Fourteenth Amendment contained a right to abortion.“[I]t is entirely possible that the Court might have held in Dobbs that some other provision of the Constitution provided a right to access reproductive services had that issue been raised. However, it was not raised.”

Kollar-Kotelly suggests that such a right might be found in the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery. "Of those provisions that might contain some right to access to such services, the Thirteenth Amendment has received substantial attention among scholars and, briefly, in one federal Court of Appeals decision."

Such arguments rely on the belief that pro-life laws "enslave" women by making them carry unwanted pregnancies.

The judge directed the prosecution and defense to address "whether the scope of Dobbs is confined to the Fourteenth Amendment" and "whether … any other provision of the Constitution could confer a right to abortion … such that Dobbs may or may not be the final pronouncement on the issue[.]"

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Rockford Residents File Lawsuit over Zoning of "Home Business" Abortion Facility

Four residents of a Rockford, IL neighborhood, with the help of the Thomas More Society, are filing suit over the zoning of abortionist Dennis Christensen's "home business" clinic. The plaintiffs filed the suit in Winnebago County Court.

The clinic opened last month after the Rockford Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) ruled that the Thomas More Society and several residents who filed complaints had no standing to contest the facility's zoning. ZBA said that the groups did not live close enough to the facility to be affected by it. The board's ruling allows Christensen's residential building to operate as a "home business" abortion clinic under a 40-year-old special permit allowing a home medical office there.

The plaintiffs of the new lawsuit each live within 1200 feet of Christensen's clinic.

“An abortion clinic in the middle of a residential neighborhood would be a problem under any circumstances,” explained Breen, “But it is especially egregious in this situation. This abortionist has already been run out of town previously, having had his facility shut down over ten years ago by the Illinois Department of Health, because of the risks he posed to the safety and health of area women. The residents of Rockford didn’t want him practicing in their town then and they down want him selling abortions in their neighborhood now.”

Residents in the suit argue that the application of a special use permit violates several ordinances and causes harm to the community. On the day that the facility opened, a pro-abortion woman attacked peaceful protestors outside the building. She was later arrested and charged with battery.

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Mark Houck to Press Charges Against FBI for "Reckless" Raid

Armed FBI agents outside Houck family home
image provided by the Thomas More Society

Pro-life advocate Mark Houck announced plans to press charges against the FBI for their "reckless" raid on his home that "terrorized" his children last September.

On Jan 31, the day after he was acquitted of the FACE Act charges pressed by the Biden administration, Houck spoke on the "War Room" podcast with Steve Bannon. Bannon asked Houck directly, “Do you intend to press charges for prosecutorial abuse? And are you going to press charges against the FBI agents and the state troopers?”

Houck responded, “We most definitely will and we will be seeking counsel on that. I think Peter Breen at Thomas More Society wants to get myself, my wife, and children in front of Congress and give them the details of what happened.”

Between 2015 and 2019, Breen served on the Illinois General Assembly. Now, Breen works as the Executive Vice President & Head of Litigation at the Thomas More Society. The Thomas More Society represented Houck against the Biden administration's charges.

For the first time since his arrest, Houck publicly described the experience of his arrest. Before 7 AM on September 23, 2022, Houck awoke to repeated banging on his front door. Houck said the authorities did not identify themselves while doing so. Houck demanded that they identify themselves before he opened the door, and they did.

“As I opened the door, I could not believe the circus scene that I saw,” he said.

There were “at least 10, 15 marked and unmarked units right in front of me. Surrounding the side of my house, I have 100 yards to the street, cars lined all the way up to the street, long guns pointed at me, heavily armored vests, ballistic helmets, ballistic shields, a battering ram,” he said.

“It was reckless that day,” Houck said. “I’m so surprised that someone wasn’t shot or I wasn’t shot.”

“[If] my kids picked up one of our airsoft guns that they play around with they easily could have been shot,” he said, adding that this was “extremely reckless behavior on the part of the federal government.”

Houck further alleges that the FBI "manipulated" him and his wife into giving them information that he didn't want to give them.

Perhaps most shockingly, Houck told Bannon that prior to his trial, the Biden administration offered him a plea deal. If Houck pled guilty, he would walk away with just "a slap on the wrist."

“I was not going to take that plea. But I just wanted your audience to know that that’s how highly the government thought of this case,” he said. “And I knew the importance of allowing this case to set precedent for the pro-life movement, to have case law on the books.”

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Satanic Temple to Open "Religious" Abortion Clinic Named for Justice Alito's Mother

The Satanic Temple (TST) announced plans to open a telemedicine abortion facility in New Mexico named after the mother of pro-life Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Alito wrote the majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The name is a not-so-subtle argument that Alito's mother should have paid an abortionist to have him killed.

The facility will simply be named “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.”

“In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened,” said Malcolm Jarry, the cofounder of TST. “Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.”

A TST press release reads, “Patients undergo a confidential screening and virtual appointment before having their prescriptions sent to the clinic’s pharmacy partner, who will mail the medications in a discreet package.”

TST argues that the first amendment exempts them from federal and state laws regulating abortion because. The press release says that pills will be provided for an "abortion ritual" that is "an essential part of a religious practice."

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Man Arrested for Peoria Planned Parenthood Arson

Tyler Massengill
photo from Peoria Police Department

32-year-old Tyler Massengill of Chillicothe, IL has been arrested for the arson attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria, IL.

The Peoria Fire Department estimated $150,000 in damages. Planned Parenthood later said that the damage caused by the attack would cost over $1 million to repair. According to the facility's website, it is “Available by phone and telehealth only from 01/20/23 until further notice.”

Massengill confessed to breaking a window and throwing a Molotov cocktail into the Planned Parenthood clinic. He told police that he was "triggered" by memories of an abortion a past girlfriend had without his knowledge.

After his arrest on Jan. 24, he was charged with having “maliciously damaged and destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire and an explosive, a building used in interstate commerce and engaged in activity affecting interstate commerce.” He appeared in court on Feb 1, when a federal judge found probable cause for him to stand trial on a federal charge equivalent to aggravated arson.

Massengill has a criminal record spanning back to the age of 13, including 26 arrests in Peoria county. He has been convicted of burglary, theft, domestic battery, aggravated assault, and trespassing. He was on probation at the time of the arson.

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