Florida man sentenced to prison over conspiracy targeting pregnancy centers

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man is heading to prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate employees of pro-life pregnancy help centers.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Caleb Freestone, along with two co-defendants, Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera, targeted facilities that provided and counseled alternatives to abortion and vandalized those facilities.

Freestone was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.

Court documents show the trio admitted to targeting Florida pregnancy centers and spray-painted those facilities in the cover of darkness, writing messages such as “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you,” “YOUR TIME IS UP!!,” “WE’RE COMING for U” and “We are everywhere.”

“These defendants admitted that they conspired to paint threatening messages on crisis pregnancy centers, based on the defendants’ objection to the services those centers offered,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Violence and threats of violence have no place in our national discourse on reproductive health. The Justice Department is committed to protecting the right to access reproductive health care and prosecuting anyone who interferes with that right.”

Smith-Stewart and Rivera were also sentenced to 30 days in prison and 60 days in home detention.

The FBI Tampa Field Office and Miami Police Department investigated the case.

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