Men giving away Bibles cleared of charges
Pastor Dale Morgan
Men giving away Bibles cleared of charges*
2 Gideons cited while on public property near Florida school
Posted: July 28, 2007
Alliance Defense Fund
A Florida judge has dismissed all counts against two members of The
Gideons International who were arrested while handing out Bibles on a
public sidewalk outside a school, officials with the Alliance Defense
Fund said.
"Christians cannot be treated as second-class citizens," said ADF senior
legal counsel David Cortman. "These two men have the same constitutional
rights as everyone else to pass out literature on a public sidewalk.
"We are pleased that the court agrees that these men should not have
been arrested and dismissed the charges against them," he said.
The case has been handled by the legal alliance, which defends the right
to hear and speak the truth through strategy, training, funding and
litigation, since shortly after Ernest Simpson and Anthony Mirto were
arrested.
They had been charged with trespassing after the principal complained
that they were handing out Bibles.
The initial counts were dismissed at the request of the ADF shortly
after the law firm got involved, but then authorities filed a second
round of counts, under a different law that prohibits anyone from being
within 500 feet of any school property, including on public sidewalks
and streets, without having either "legitimate business" or permission.
"Why is Florida so interested in prosecuting people who hand out
Bibles?" the ADF had wondered at the time. "Does the state now believe
that its citizens will be safer if 'protected' from Bibles? In a country
founded on religious freedom, the actions of the State are a disgrace."
As was originally reported, Mirto and Simpson of Monroe County were
arrested, charged with trespassing, and booked into jail after the
school principal, Annette Martinson, called police.
They were verbally assaulted and badgered by the arresting officer,
according to court filings in the case, and sustained injury to their
wrists when he handcuffed them with their hands behind their backs and
detained them in a closed, un-air conditioned car for nearly an hour in
90-degree heat.
"The distribution of Bibles on a public sidewalk is not a criminal
offense," Cortman said then. "The attempts by Florida officials to
continue pressing for the prosecution of Mr. Mirto and Mr. Simpson is
not only blatantly unconstitutional, it borders on religious persecution."
The incident Jan. 19 developed as the two men were distributing Bibles
outside Key Largo School.
While the original trespassing counts were unreasonable, the second
round put the state of Florida in the "untenable position of trying to
justify the punishment of fundamental First Amendment activities in a
quintessential traditional public forum," the ADF described.
On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by
the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law,
unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn't apply
to the two members of Gideons International, then that creates a
content-based speech restriction, which also isn't proper, Cortman said.
In fact, if anyone may have stepped beyond the law, the filing suggests,
it was the arresting officer from the Monroe County sheriff's office.
"There was no call for Officer [John] Perez's angry demeanor, his
inappropriate handling of the situation, his abusive treatment of the
Gideons, his stopping and arresting them while they were in the process
of leaving, his unnecessary towing of the car (parked where many other
cars were parked), his handcuffing the men behind their backs, his
leaving them cramped in a hot car for nearly an hour (which should never
be done to animals, never mind to human beings), nor his mocking the
Gideons' religious beliefs stating 'now you can pray to Jesus all the
way to jail,'" the ADF said.
In a statement at the outset of the case, Becky Herrin, of the public
information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a
fact that the defendants in the case did trespass. She later declined
additional comment.
"A copy of our police report … clearly states that the people in
question were arrested for trespassing on school property – not on a
public sidewalk… In fact, they were given the opportunity to step off
school property and onto public property, and they could have continued
with their activities if they had done so. They chose instead to remain,
against repeated warnings, on school property so deputies were forced to
arrest them," Herrin said in a statement to WND.
But the report revealed that the two were arrested while in their
vehicle parked near, but not on, school property.
The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole
purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service,
personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic
lanes and streams of everyday life."
Members of the Gideons, who pay their own expenses so 100 percent of the
donations to the group go toward Bible purchases and distributions, have
placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.
The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing
homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law
enforcement and prisons and jails.
"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that
we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done –
if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more
than 1 million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days
in these areas…" the group said.
The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the
covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its
distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800.
Information about the products is available on the group's website.
The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church
and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association
in the United States.