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Talks surround Gosnell case, but no agreement announced

With just three days before jury selection is to begin in the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, the 72-year-old West Philadelphia abortion doctor was brought to court Thursday to meet with his lawyer, wife, and two children to weigh an apparent plea offer.

With just three days before jury selection is to begin in the murder trial of Kermit Gosnell, the 72-year-old West Philadelphia abortion doctor was brought to court Thursday to meet with his lawyer, wife, and two children to weigh an apparent plea offer.

Gosnell never appeared in court at the city's Criminal Justice Center. Instead, he was in a prisoner interview booth attached to the courtroom.

There he spent about two hours as defense attorney Jack McMahon shuttled between the booth and Assistant District Attorneys Edward Cameron and Joanne Pescatore in a nearby waiting room.

Gosnell's third wife, Pearl, 52, and a teenage daughter joined McMahon in the booth.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart carved out the morning from an ongoing murder trial in case a formal hearing was required. But by about 1 p.m., the shuttling ended and the lawyers left.

It could not be determined if Gosnell had rejected a plea offer, as a gag order was cited by Cameron, Pescatore, and McMahon in declining to comment.

A last-minute plea deal is not unusual in a case like Gosnell's, where a death sentence is possible if the jury finds a defendant guilty of first-degree murder.

Gosnell has been held without bail since January 2011, when he was charged with performing illegal late-term abortions and killing infants born live and viable by snipping their spinal cords with scissors.

He is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder involving the deaths of seven newborns and a count of third-degree murder in the 2007 death of a Virginia woman given too much anesthesia by Gosnell's untrained staff during an abortion.

Nine of Gosnell's employees at his Women's Medical Society Clinic at 3801 Lancaster Ave. - including his wife - were charged along with him for participating in illegal abortions or being involved in other aspects of what prosecutors called a "corrupt organization."

All but one of the employees has pleaded guilty to a variety of charges and some are expected to testify against Gosnell. None of those who pleaded guilty has been sentenced.

The only one who will stand trial with Gosnell is Eileen O'Neill, 56, of Phoenixville, a medical school graduate accused of working as a doctor in his clinic though she never obtained a medical license.

O'Neill's attorney, James Berardinelli, said she intended to go to trial.

Gosnell also faces trial in federal court on a December 2011 grand jury indictment accusing him of operating a "pill mill" out of the Women's Medical Society, where scripts for addictive narcotics were sold for cash.