Utah doctor charged with murder in late-term abortions case has troubled past

SALT LAKE CITY — Long before she was indicted for murder this week by a Maryland grand jury, Utah Dr. Nicola Riley was in trouble with the law.

In 1991, Riley was serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army when she was dishonorably discharged following a court martial, according to military records. Riley and two enlisted soldiers had engaged in a credit card fraud scheme that earned the officer a one-year stint in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the records show.

Fast-forward 20 years and Riley finds herself behind bars once again — this time accused of participating in illegal abortions in Maryland.

A grand jury in Cecil County, Md., has indicted Riley and Dr. Steven Brigham of Voorhees, N.J., for multiple counts of murder. Both doctors are accused of traveling to Maryland to perform late-term abortions in August 2010. They were arrested in their home states Wednesday and await extradition.

Riley's defense attorney, Daniel Goldstein, said police in Elkton, Md., never contacted him or his client during their 16-month investigation. He called the charges against the doctor "politically motivated."

"I'm sad to see the charges have been brought," Goldstein told the Deseret News Friday. "I'm confident that when we get a chance to get this before the judge, she'll be vindicated."

Authorities say a botched procedure at Brigham's clinic in Elkton, located near the border of Maryland and Delaware, was the starting point for their investigation. An 18-year-old woman who was 21 weeks pregnant had her uterus ruptured and her bowel injured, and rather than call 911, Brigham and Riley drove her to a nearby hospital, where both were uncooperative and Brigham refused to give his name, according to documents filed in a previous investigation by medical regulators.

A search of the clinic after the botched abortion revealed a freezer containing 35 late-term fetuses, including one believed to have been aborted at 36 weeks, the documents show.

Brigham, 55, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of second-degree murder and one count of conspiracy. Riley, 46, faces one count each of first- and second-degree murder and one conspiracy count.

The charges relate to the botched procedure as well as other abortions performed at the Elkton clinic or fetuses found there, authorities said.