Interesting name, "Freedom Village". Especially coming from a group who discourage children from going home by telling them they would go to hell if they left before they were ready - refer to article below.

Interesting tactic - sending 2 bus loads of supporters and a Freedom Village Chior to sing support outside the courtroom. Brings back memories of Tichbourne case and "Not one thin dime for Wollersheim".

Interesting tactic - to counter sue - or attack the attacker and take the emphasis off the issues at hand. Force the critic off topic, change hats, handle the bad PR, find the crimes in the critic.

Interesting year, 1993, when a federal bankrupcy judge allowed Freedom Village, which was facing foreclosure over more than $21 million in unpaid debts, to continue operating by dramatically reducing Mr. Brothers' debts to about 15 percent of the amount being sought by creditors. 1993 was a good year for Mr.

Miscavige also, with the IRS and all.

Interesting statement from the counsil for Mr. Brothers - <snip> Vogel said, adding that Brothers founded and operates the religious community "at great personal cost and commitment... . He's here to heal these kids and he has a fantastic track record." <snip> refer to below. I say show us a financial statement. Where are the funds going? Put the kids on the stand - what are they being told by Mr. Brothers?

Little cults, big cults, they seem to use similar tactics.

http://www.rochesterdandc.com/news/0704story1_news.shtml

Yates pastor must stand trial over 'illegal restraint' lawsuit By Jack Jones

Democrat and Chronicle (July 4, 2002) — A state Supreme Court justice on Wednesday scheduled a trial for next Thursday, July 11, in the case of a Buffalo-area teen whose mother has charged that her daughter is being held against her will at a Yates County residential religious community.

In court papers filed last week, Patricia Brown accused the Rev. Fletcher Brothers of psychologically coercing her daughter, Sandra Brown, 17, into not returning to her family home and remaining at Freedom Village, U.S.A., a home for wayward teens.

Sandra Brown has lived at Freedom Village since she and her brother Tom, 18, were sent there by her mother in January 1998. After hearing preliminary arguments Wednesday, Judge Kevin Dillon said that although the case centers on whether the teen is being held against her will, "this is not a custody case" but "a factual dispute over illegal restraint."

Sandra Brown sat quietly in the courtroom during the proceeding.

Her court-appointed law guardian, Michele Brown, who is no relation to Sandra, said the teen "is her own woman" who has chosen to continue living at Freedom Village although her mother and her brother -- who left the religious community in December -- have demanded that she return to the family's home in Hamburg, near Buffalo.

"I cannot say that I see any unlawful detainment here," said the law guardian.

Buffalo lawyer Susan Gray, who last week filed the lawsuit on behalf of Patricia Brown, said she has talked with several former residents of the residential religious school who have said they were threatened and coerced by Brothers and staff members whenever they expressed a desire to leave Freedom Village and return to their homes.

Gray said children who leave the village also have trouble transferring school credits from the religious community's nonaccredited academic program and are often unable to fit back into society because they haven't been taught social and economic skills.

Although Brothers has said the disciplinary program for troubled teens is a

one-year program, Gray said most residents like Tom and Sandra Brown are dissuaded from leaving.

Patricia Brown said that she sought to bring her children home several times during the years since she enrolled them at Freedom Village but that Brothers "always told me they weren't ready yet to come home."

Tom Brown said Brothers and others at the school frightened him by telling him he would "go to hell if I left before I was ready."

Outside the courtroom, Brothers, who traveled nearly 100 miles to Buffalo with two tour buses containing about 100 supporters and a Freedom Village choir that sang patriotic songs outside the courthouse, said that all of the nearly 200 children at the 150-acre communal residence are free to come and go as they choose.

"We know we're right," Brothers said after Wednesday's court hearing.

"My concern is that parents and grandparents will read these ridiculous allegations and not send children who need help to Freedom Village."

Brothers said that since Freedom Village was founded and began taking in troubled teens 21 years ago, "thousands" have overcome drug, alcohol and sexual addictions and violence and graduated from the program and gone on to lead productive lives.

Brothers also said that he has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Patricia

Brown because of allegations she has made against him in connection with the lawsuit.

The countersuit has been filed "to defend (Brothers') ministry against libelous and slanderous arguments" that have been publicized through the media, said Brothers' lawyer, Stacey Vogel of Buffalo.

Brothers garnered headlines in the 1970s as a fundamentalist minister who stormed Rochester City Council meetings to crusade against gay rights and other liberal issues.

Freedom Village was the subject of intense media criticism in the early 1980s, when Brothers was accused of siphoning funds for his personal use from the former Gates Community Chapel that he and a group of followers founded in Monroe County in 1975.

In 1993 a federal bankruptcy judge allowed Freedom Village -- which was facing foreclosure over more than $21 million in unpaid debts -- to continue operating and dramatically reduced Brothers' bills to about 15 percent of the amount being sought by creditors.

Many of those debtors were fellow Christians who said Brothers had persuaded them to invest in his youth salvation enterprise and promised to pay interest on their personal loans.

Vogel said Brothers, who continues to solicit funds through radio and television broadcasts for his ministry, has to speak out and defend himself

against his critics because "someone who runs a publicly supported organization cannot stand still" when accused of wrongdoing.

"Freedom Village is not a place for good kids," Vogel said, adding that Brothers founded and operates the religious community "at great personal cost and commitment... . He's here to heal these kids and he has a fantastic track record."

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