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CULTURE: Westboro Baptist Church Faces the Music
via SuicideGirls News Wire on 5/1/08
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably familiar with the idiocy and attention-whoring of Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church.
This group of homophobic lunatics have garnered notice for such acts as regularly protesting and picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also for planning to picket the funeral of actor Heath Ledger ... you know, because he portrayed a homosexual in a movie.
Well, they're in the news again, but they're probably not enjoying this form of attention very much.
This past October, they were found liable for violating a family’s right to privacy and intentionally inflicting emotional distress by protesting at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder - killed in action in Iraq in 2006.
Although the original civil court decision of $10.9M in damages was later reduced to $5M, the bill has come due and legal action has been taken to collect the judgment.
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.
Hopefully, this is only the first of many hurdles - both legal and financial - that these wackjobs will face on their long overdue road to extinction.
via SuicideGirls News Wire on 5/1/08
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably familiar with the idiocy and attention-whoring of Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church.
This group of homophobic lunatics have garnered notice for such acts as regularly protesting and picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also for planning to picket the funeral of actor Heath Ledger ... you know, because he portrayed a homosexual in a movie.
Well, they're in the news again, but they're probably not enjoying this form of attention very much.
This past October, they were found liable for violating a family’s right to privacy and intentionally inflicting emotional distress by protesting at the funeral of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder - killed in action in Iraq in 2006.
Although the original civil court decision of $10.9M in damages was later reduced to $5M, the bill has come due and legal action has been taken to collect the judgment.
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.
Hopefully, this is only the first of many hurdles - both legal and financial - that these wackjobs will face on their long overdue road to extinction.
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