Doctor Receives Two Years for Abortifacient-filled Syringe Attack.(Stephen Pack)(Brief Article)

Dr. Stephen Pack, a Bronx physician who attempted to abort his pregnant girlfriend's baby by stabbing her with a drug-filled syringe, was sentenced April 20 to two years in jail for his attack on Joy Schepis. Fortunately, Pack's brutal assault failed and Schepis delivered Michael David Mitchell November 28.

Although Pack used methotrexate, a powerful anti-cancer drug sometimes used as an abortifacient, young Michael was born healthy. At the time of the April 14, 2000, assault, Pack repeatedly stabbed Schepis in the thigh and buttocks with the syringe after telling her, "I'm giving you an abortion!"

Pack copped a plea in negotiations with prosecutors in January. He came to the courtroom of the Bronx Supreme Court with an unidentified clergyman in tow. According to the New York Post, he "apologized," an apology (not surprisingly) Schepis found insincere.

Prior to the plea agreement, Pack could have received up to seven years in prison for his vicious attack in the parking lot of Montefiore Hospital. The agreement allowed for a three-year sentence but Justice Ira Globerman limited the sentence to two years.

Pack pled guilty to assault and "committing an abortional act" on Schepis, who was a nurse. Pack, at the time a married father of two, and Schepis, a divorced mother of a two-year-old boy, both worked at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, and had a brief affair that left Schepis pregnant. When she refused to abort the baby, police say, Pack confronted Schepis outside the hospital. Pack pulled out a hypodermic needle filled with ...