Page 20 - Flathead Beacon // 3.18.15

20 | MARCH 18, 2015
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selling her business, and she didn’t want the extra overhead.
The building sold, purchased by Mi- chelle and Kent Reimer, and Cahill was evicted. Michelle Reimer works as the executive director for Hope Pregnancy Ministries, and has said that she and her husband gave All Families Healthcare the necessary legal notice to vacate.
Cahill believes that when she didn’t retire after the eviction, and instead moved to a new location, that Zachary Klundt decided to put her out of busi- ness anyway, three weeks after she had moved.
In an interview with the Beacon, Reimer said neither she nor the organi- zations she works with had anything to do with the destruction of All Families Healthcare.
“It’s absolutely not the case,” Reimer said. “I don’t know even what I could say further about it except that it couldn’t be any further from the truth. I’m sorry Su- san feels that way.”
Twyla Klundt resigned from the Hope Pregnancy board after her son was arrested.
“She was on the board right up un- til this happened when she realized it could be uncomfortable for us, which has proven to be absolutely true, not be- cause of anything Twyla has done or did but because of people’s perceptions,” Re- imer said. “She was sensitive to that and resigned.”
Reimer, who has served as the execu- tive director for seven years, said Hope Pregnancy and Clear Choice Clinic are “pro-life and pro-women,” and are about compassion for women, regardless of how they choose to handle their preg- nancies.
The services are all free, and pa- tients are counseled about all options, including abortion “as equally as we know how,” Reimer said, meaning that the organization teaches its nurses and advocates how to discuss options with- out putting pressure on the patient to choose one or the other.
“It’s not my baby and it’s not my life. I don’t have to live with [anyone else’s] decision,” Reimer said. “No matter what you decide, we’ll be here for you.”
Clear Choice Clinic promotes ab- stinence and does not provide patients with birth control, but does refer out those who want birth control, she said. Reimer estimated that the clinic sees between 500 and 700 patients a year, for unintended pregnancies as well as sexu- ally transmitted infections.
The attack at All Families Health- care has led to threats at Hope Pregnan- cy and Clear Choice Clinic because of the perceived connection, Reimer said.
“It’s been uncomfortable. It’s so for- eign to me to think that anybody could suspect any kind of wrongdoing that it’s been hard,” Reimer said. “It’s not been as hard as what [Susan Cahill] has been through.”
Regardless of the issue, even one as charged with debate as abortion, Reimer saidpersonaldifferencesshouldbedis- cussed with civility.
“People are passionate, and I don’t think it’s ever right for it to come out
Zachary Klundt. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
sideways,” she said. “I think we can be passionate about what we believe in, but we always have to have respect. I think we need to have respect for our fellow humans. We don’t have to believe the same thing, but we have to exist together in some measure of harmony.”
Still, with All Families Healthcare out of business and Cahill deciding she won’t perform abortions anymore, the Flathead is abortion free. When asked if she thought the ends justified the means in this case, Reimer said it was a difficult question.
“I wish that what happened never had. I have no control over the outcome of that. I wish Susan hadn’t been af- fected in any way by any kind of action on any person’s part. But the outcome of
said he would not ask for “straight probation,” meaning the prosecution will seek some form of incarceration.
After his arrest last March, Klundt remained at the Flathead County Deten- tion Center until Sept. 22, when he was released after two properties worth a to- tal of $268,620 were posted to meet his $110,000 bond.
Klundt’s parents asked the court multiple times to release their son to them on his own recognizance, and Judge Ted O. Lympus denied each at- tempt, despite the Klundts’ assurances that their son would attend an inpatient drug and alcohol treatment center.
Drug and alcohol use are factors in Klundt’s defense. His attorney, Bigfork- based lawyer Peter Leander, said Klundt was drunk and on a cocktail of “mis-pre- scribed” drugs during the commission of the crimes.
Despite repeated requests, Leander would not grant the Beacon an interview with his client. However, he provided a statement from and about Klundt, apol- ogizing for the strife he caused Cahill and the other victims in his case.
“First and foremost, Zach is tor- mented by the pain and trauma suffered by Susan Cahill, Bob Smith and others, including but not limited to, his family as a result of this case. Zach is working extremely hard to be able do the right thing, now and in the future, for those he has hurt,” the statement reads. “Al- though Zach has little recollection of the events that took place that night, that does not diminish his realization that his acts deeply hurt and scared many people. Despite what has been written in the press, he does not harbor ill feelings or hatred toward Susan Cahill.”
According to Leander, Klundt has suffered from Tourette syndrome, se- vere clinical anxiety, and severe clinical depression since early childhood. At the time of the break-in, Klundt couldn’t af- ford health insurance, and received in- consistent medical care as a result.
This led to the mis- and over- prescription of “powerful psychotropic medications,”whichcancausepsychotic and hallucinatory episodes, Leander said.
“Zach has spent 6 1/2 months in jail
and during that time weaned himself off of all medications. Since obtaining his release, he has voluntarily and success- fully completed the residential Wilder- ness Treatment Program, and is now ex- tensively involved in a program of alco- hol recovery,” the statement reads. “He is also attending college with the goal of earning a dual degree and working in his spare time.”
Leander also pointed out the hours of testimony in Klundt’s favor at one of the bond hearings, describing him as a “kind, gentle and giving young man.”
“In a strange way, it’s important to note that Susan Cahill’s office is only one of the offices involved in this case. Others offices were those of Zach’s fam- ily and friends,” the statement reads. “While Zach may not be a proponent of abortions, he has always been taught to – and does – respect both those who share his beliefs and those who do not share his beliefs. His actions that night do not speak to who he truly is. Zach, in his heart, respects Ms. Cahill’s right to pursue her medical profession, includ- ing performing abortion, in peace and without having to fear violence from
abortions, Cahill said she would
still like to get back to her practice, to engage with her patients again at a personal level and get to work healing again.
But even that is proving difficult; ac- cording to Cahill, two building owners, one of them a personal friend of hers, have declined to rent her a space, saying she’s too much of a liability.
“I’m totally in limbo at the moment,” she said. “I don’t think I’m going to stop looking for a place, but I also realize that I’m going to be confronted with this problem, big time. If close friends think I’m a liability, that’s saying a lot.”
She doesn’t want to leave the Flat- head. It’s the only home she’s known since she was 27 years old, and now, at 65, she wants to be able to retire here. But more than that, she wants to start a conversation here, one wherein the com- munity can look at how it deals with op- posing viewpoints, and how it reacts to violence.
“I feel sad and I feel frustrated and I just keep thinking, really? Really? I can’t do my profession safely in this community?” she said.
As for Klundt, Cahill said she hopes to receive some restitution for her financial losses, and she hopes the judge sentences him to prison.
“I want him to go to prison because if he doesn’t go to prison, other people whose belief systems are different are going to think they can do something like this and get away with it. And that can’t happen in our community,” Cahill said. “He has a right to his belief system. He doesn’t have a right to destroy my livelihood, my profession, and potential- ly my life, because he doesn’t agree with whatIdo.Andifhedoesn’tgetsome kind of punishment, then it’s not going to mean anything.”
[email protected]
Zhat is not up to me,” Reimer said.
achary Klundt, now 25, is scheduled to change his not guilty pleas to guilty on April 2 – 25 days
before he was supposed to go to trial for six felony charges, including three counts of theft, one of burglary, one of attempted burglary, and one of criminal mischief.
He was initially charged with only four felonies, three of them related to the All Families Healthcare break-in, and one stemming from an attempted burglary at Bob’s Bail Bonds a day after the clinic was vandalized.
Police caught Klundt after the sec- ond break-in was reported, while he was walking a block away from the scene. The officers found a loaded handgun and a spare, full magazine in the holster.
They also found cuts on his hands, cash and glass shards in his pocket, and matched his shoes to the footprints left at the scene at the clinic.
Klundt pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, as well as the two charges added last July for allegedly stealing a gun and a tablet from one per- son, and tools from another.
All told, Klundt faces a maximum of 80 years in prison and $300,000 in fines, along with the possibility of paying restitution on most of the charges. Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan said he couldn’t go into specifics about the potential plea deal for Klundt, but
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