jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB) wrote in <20010426234150.05113.00001155@ng-
mm1.aol.com>:
> thank you for this information. I hAd no idea of this. Who is Keith's
> attorney?
Jim Harr represented Keith in this case.
Given the fact that the judge would not allow Keith to even state why he
was out there, Keith couldn't put on a defense, nor could he explain why he
said "Ruin them utterly" in a post (which is a direct quote from LRH). He
couldn't bring in Fair Game, nor the fact that the cult has spent millions
of dollars trying to destroy him. Nor could he point out that there were
cult-paid attorneys watching the Assistant DA's every move in the
courtroom.
I have read the statute 422.6 and I have looked at some California case
law. I think it's going to be difficult to make this conviction stick, and
I'll tell you why. Keith was convicted of a hate crime, but in all the case
law I've read on the subject, 422.6 came into play along with immediate
threats to one's bodily security, or even charges of assault, battery,
attempted murder and suchlike. For example, in one case, two female minors
were convicted of violating 422.6, but in their case, they had been riding
around in the Castro and were first yelling anti-gay sentiments, and then
approaching gays with broken off bottles. Note how this is a far cry from
picketing. Another case involved a guy who had assaulted and battered
people he had threatened. I could go on and on. I would love to have
access to Lexis / Nexis, because in my cursory search on FindLaw, I could
not pull up any cases that involved picketing. I think an appellate court
is going to look askance at the judge's definition of 'immediate', for
example.
Keith's only threat in picketing Scientology is economic, and frankly,
that's one of the purposes of a picket, to convince people to take their
business elsewhere. If the Scientologists at Gold are so paranoid that a 58
YO man with a sign that says "Church of $" scares them shitless, then there
are some people who desperately need psychological help, and not the kind
dispensed by the followers of dead cult leader, tax evader and "war hero"
L. Ron Hubbard.
The thing that amazes me is that Scientology has had no problem picketing
Keith Henson and Arel Lucas with impunity, and yet if Keith were to file
charges saying he felt threatened, the cops would laugh at him. Yet
Scientology was able to get this conviction because they talked the judge
into not letting Keith put on a defense of any sort.
All I can say is that I believe Scientology has now pulled it in. I also
believe that Scientology's prodding of the DA has provoked a constitutional
crisis in California. I would also hope that the judge would drop the jury
verdict on 422.6 because there is no crime committed here--only a bunch of
people at Gold who are so afraid of one middle-aged man with heart problems
walking up and down with a picket sign in front of their business.
Deana
mirele@earthlink.net