Updated at: 01/23/2009 02:18:01 PM | Print Story
By: Becky Nahm & Nicole Muehlhausen
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Man tries to drive SUV into St. Paul Planned Parenthood
 


 MN groups mark Roe v. Wade anniversary

A 32-year-old man was arrested Thursday after ramming his SUV into the front door of an abortion clinic on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, police said.

Matthew Lee Derosia, of Cottage Grove, was taken to the Ramsey County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault, said police spokesman Peter Panos.

The incident happened at 7:30 a.m. at the Planned Parenthood in St. Paul. The only person in the clinic at the time was not injured, but the clinic's front door was damaged.

The clinic's surveillance camera caught the entire ordeal, but officials would not release the footage.

It allegedly shows Derosia crashing into the front of the building, getting out, and then pacing around the entrance waving a crucifix.

"He's just highly agitated," said Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kathi Dinicola. "He wasn't really engaging in conversation. He was chanting, he was very upset."

"We're out here trying to protect the unborn from being harmed and women from being harmed, but also we don't want to see harm to anyone--including those who work at Planned Parenthood," said Brian Gibson with Pro-Life Ministries, who's group had been demonstrating nearby the landmark Roe versus Wade decision which legalized abortion on Jan. 22, 1973.

Planned Parenthood, which is the organization's only clinic in the state that offers abortions, said their services were not disrupted due to the incident, which police believe was intentional.

"That's our belief - that it was an intentional act," St. Paul Police spokesman Peter Panos said. "Usually we have some demonstrations there on this day, but someone doing actual damage is very, very rare."

According to civil case records, Derosia has been committed to mental facilities in Ramsey and Washington Counties 12 times in the past eight years.

Derosia's mother told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that her son claimed God had been talking to him to save unborn babies, but never thought he'd do something like this.

"I'm not saying what he did was right at all. It was a terrible thing to do. But Matt talks to God, he listens to God, and he thinks God wanted him to do this," said the suspect's mother Georjean Derosia.

She said her son used to work at a newborn intensive care unit at a Metro hospital as a housekeeper and became attached to the children in the nursery.

According to Georjean, Derosia became so attached, that he couldn't bear the thought that any child would be aborted and the voices in his head just kept getting louder.

"He saw all these little babies that made it and he heard all these horror stories about the babies that made it in the trash can making noise. It made him sick," Georjean said holding back tears. "He worries about these babies that get aborted and he obsesses on it."

Georjean hasn't been able to talk with her son since the incident. Derosia is expected to be formally charged on Friday.