From the APWire:
Westboro Baptist Church must post bond in appeal process
Friday April 04, 2008, 1:34 PM
BALTIMORE — A federal judge has issued liens against a fundamentalist Kansas church and ordered two of its members to post cash bonds while they appeal a $5 million judgment resulting from the church’s protest at a military funeral.
The Westboro Baptist Church has filed a motion seeking to stay last November’s verdict, in which a jury found that the Topeka, Kan.-based church intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Albert Snyder of York, Pa. Snyder’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed in Iraq in March 2006.
The church frequently pickets military funerals, arguing that the deaths of U.S. troops overseas are part of God’s punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality. Since the verdict, the church has protested at other high-profile funerals in the Baltimore area, claiming that “God hates Baltimore.”
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett placed a lien on the properties of the church and its founder, Fred W. Phelps Sr., and ordered two of Phelps’ daughters to post cash bonds of $125,000 and $100,000 within 30 days.
The church property was appraised recently at $442,800. Bennett also placed a lien on a $232,900 office building owned by Phelps and his wife that the family law firm uses. The liens mean that no new mortgages can be taken out on the properties, and no money can be borrowed against the equity in them.
Bennett noted that it would require “extraordinary circumstances” for the church to avoid posting a portion of the judgment.
Phelps’ daughters, Shirley L. Phelps-Roper and Rebekah A. Phelps-Davis, have argued that they and the church cannot afford to pay the $5 million judgment, which Bennett reduced from an initial jury award of $10.9 million.
Sean E. Summers, an attorney for Snyder, suggested that the church was not being forthcoming about its finances, questioning how its members can afford to travel around the country when documents turned over to the court show that Phelps-Davis and Phelps-Roper have just a few hundred dollars in their checking accounts.
Phelps-Davis and Phelps-Roper are both attorneys. Phelps-Davis earned about $55,000 last year, and Phelps-Roper made about $20,000, according to tax returns filed with the court.
“If you ordered any one of them here today, they probably couldn’t afford to come, but yet they travel the world,” Summers said. “There’s money somewhere.”
Summers said the judge’s order for the defendants to put up essentially all their assets was “as good as we could have expected.”
Phelps-Roper would not reveal her next legal move but hinted that it would be impossible to raise $125,000. Failing a reversal of the judge’s ruling on appeal, she said God will deliver her and her church. “
Oh yeah, baby. God will deliver you alright. For all the pain and stress the Phelps family has put on the grieving families of American servicemen killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, I hope God delivers roper-dope straight into the arms of satan himself.
I like Al Snyder. Never met the man. But any guy who can bring that rogue group of pseudo-religious nuts to their knees like he has has got to be a good man.
Sean Summers’ comment about the Phelps family claiming poverty while at the same time being able to fund their travel to all over the US makes me wonder whether it is time to get the IRS involved in this matter. I know that few people like the IRS but here’s a place where they could be of actual use to the benefit of society. Why not get the IRS to look into the Phelps’ tax filings and see if they are hiding assets or are receiving taxable gifts without reporting the value of those gifts on their respective and/or combined tax returns? Seems like a timely referal to the IRS is the next step.
Time to put those jackassity assholes out of business.
6 Comments
April 4, 2008 at 3:02 pm
What exactly has Snyder stopped? By last count, these people have been at more funerals SINCE he sued them than before. Are you kidding me? All this did was get them a lot of repeated press they weren’t getting otherwise to spread their message. Way to go, Albert Snyder.
Do you really think that these people are ever going to stop this? I mean, they don’t seem to care that this has been levied against them, and you can’t take their homes away, so how is this stopping them, even slowing them down?
Sounds like an abuse of the judicial system to me, especially since it didn’t stop them.
April 4, 2008 at 3:32 pm
People like those at Westboro Baptist Church give Christians a bad name. There is nothing Christ-like about their actions.
April 4, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Just because Phelps and his little band of munchins continue to march at funerals does not mean you should be yapping at Snyder. The legal system sometimes takes awhile to grind inself into action. Phelps would have protested even if Snyder had thrown his hands into the air.
But he didn’t.
And so it’s going to become more difficult for the idiots to show up at the funerals of servicemen with their offensive signs and gaping yaws.
Snyder set the ball into motion. If you want to stick your head in the toilet with the hopes that no one will notice, then go right ahead. Until that time, and even if that time never arrives, I will continue to give Al Snyder the provervial pat on the back. He’s putting the hurt right back onto those &%*@$#% !
April 7, 2008 at 12:20 pm
A big fat amen to this one.
It’s about time that someone holds them accountable for the pain they are causing!
May 30, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Never have I seen such a miserable bunch of people in my whole life. The fact they have the nerve to call their meeting place of hate a “church” boggles my mind. I deeply respect the strength of the family members who have to endure the outrages this village of idiots puts upon them at their darkest hour. God bless our troops and their families. And may His reckoning on this group of hate mongers be swift and terrible.
July 8, 2008 at 6:21 am
Frankly I couldn’t care less if Snyder didn’t stop their picketing. Their money came from suing people who got fed up with them basically. So I just like seeing them get some of their own tactics thrown back at them. And frankly if every person they picket sues them for $5,000,000.00 they’ll be wearing those pickets as clothes!