Richard Harvey gets community service for shooting anti-abortion activist Joan Jacobson, 84

IONIA, Michigan — A West Michigan man who did not deny shooting an 84-year-old woman campaigning against abortion rights in her home was sentenced to community service on Tuesday.

Richard Harvey, 75, was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger also sentenced him to a two-month suspended prison sentence and a one-year suspended sentence.

Harvey pleaded no contest last month to felony assault, careless discharge of a firearm causing injury and careless discharge of a firearm.

Kreeger must also pay $347.19 in restitution and cannot have any contact with the woman he shot, 84-year-old Joan Jacobson.

Jacobson was shot September 20 at Harvey’s home in Odessa Township, a community about 210 kilometers northwest of Detroit. Jacobson told investigators she was asking a woman in the house to vote against a proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee abortion rights in the state when she was told to leave. The amendment was then adopted.

Harvey said the shooting was accidental, but Jacobson maintained she believed it was intentional after arguing with Harvey’s wife, Sharon Harvey.

Jacobson was treated in a hospital for a shoulder injury.