A grand jury has formally indicted a 22-year-old woman accused of setting fire to a Casper abortion clinic, federal court filings show.
Lorna Green is charged with arson of a facility engaged in interstate commerce, the indictment states. Green allegedly “maliciously damaged and destroyed, and attempted to damage and destroy, by means of fire” the Wellspring Health Access abortion clinic, which at the time was under construction along East Second Street in central Casper.
She is facing up to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine, the indictment states. The trial is expected to last up to five days.
Green is scheduled to make her initial appearance and be arraigned in front of United States Magistrate Judge Stephanie Hambrick on June 2, according to a Monday filing.
She spoke with authorities on March 21 after they searched her family home in Casper, the federal complaint filed in her case states. Green told investigators she was the suspect from the surveillance footage.
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She was booked into Natrona County Detention Center and arrested that same day following a 10-month investigation and search, jail records show.
Those charges came one day after the FBI and other law enforcement agencies searched a home near the corner of East 16th and Newport streets.
Green was then moved to Platte County jail in Wheatland.
Two days after her arrest, Green appeared in federal court in Cheyenne, where a magistrate judge decided to temporarily keep her in custody.
Green was released from jail to live with her parents a week later while the federal grand jury weighed her indictment. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing.
The court ordered her father to remove any firearms from their family home, and she surrendered her passport to the Natrona County District Court Clerk’s Office on March 29 as a condition of her release, a passport surrender receipt shows.
She was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond, meaning she didn’t have to put up any money; Green will only have to pay that sum if she fails to appear in court as required.
At the time, Hambrick acknowledged there was some risk she could be a danger to the community, but that was outweighed by her “strong ties” to Casper.
On Thursday, it will mark one year since the fire ignited at the clinic.
Casper police responded to a report of a business burglary at Wellspring Health Access on May 25, 2022. Officers saw smoke coming from the northeast corner of the building and realized the building was on fire.
Although firefighters quickly put out the blaze, the fire cause significant damages to the clinic, which had been scheduled to open within a few weeks. The opening was ultimately delayed until April of this year; it is now the only facility in central Wyoming to provide abortions.
Police released video and photos of the arsonist soon after the fire. In one, a woman can be seen carrying a gas can into the clinic while wearing a mask and hoodie to cover most of her head.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms offered a $5,000 reward for information that led to the woman’s capture. In March, the reward was raised to $15,000 with the help of an anonymous donor.
Although authorities in June released photos and video of the suspect, while also offering a reward, it took 10 months to identify Green as the suspect.
Several tipsters identified a potential suspect after the increased reward was announced. Four of the 12 tipsters identified Green as the suspect, which led to the charges, the U.S. Attorney’s office statement said.
A detective performed a comparative analysis of Green with the available security footage.
“The similarities are readily apparent, including: the wide widow’s peak with deep hair recession, and the hair can be seen to be combed or lie in the same direction; the suspect’s eyes are relatively wide-set, and this appears consistent also for Green; both Green and the suspect have similarly dome-shaped foreheads,” the official complaint says.
After her arrest, she told investigators that she knew the clinic was going to offer abortions, which she opposed, the federal complaint states.
“Green stated she did not like abortion and was having nightmares which she attributed to her anxiety about the abortion clinic, so she decided to burn the building,” the complaint says.
She was living in Laramie at the time, the federal complaint states. She bought gas cans at the local Walmart and drove to Casper on the night of May 24 with the alleged intention of setting the building on fire.
Attorney Ryan Semerad, who is representing Green, declined to comment Tuesday.
