Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Michigan Federal Judge Denies Dearborn’s Request to Dismiss Our Civil Rights Case

Dearborn police threw us in jail for having a peaceful discussion with Muslims at a public festival. They also took us into custody two days later for attempting to distribute copies of the Gospel of John outside the festival. The police seized our cameras for nearly a month and filed false police reports, while the mayor waged a smear-campaign against us. The city of Dearborn then had the nerve to try to have our civil case thrown out of court, arguing that police had "probable cause" to arrest us! Fortunately, our lawyers do not know the meaning of "sleep," and the judge saw through the city's attempt.

MICHIGAN--A U.S. District Court Judge in Detroit, Michigan denied the City of Dearborn’s request to dismiss the civil rights claims brought by several Christian missionaries arising out of their arrests by City police officers in 2010. The Christians were arrested by City police officers while preaching to Muslims at the City’s Arab Festival. The Christians spent the night in jail and were then charged and tried for “breaching the peace.” American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) Senior Counsel Robert J. Muise won acquittals from a jury for all the Christian defendants at the conclusion of the criminal trial.

Following the acquittals, Muise, along with AFLC Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi, filed a 96-page civil rights lawsuit against the City, its mayor, John B. O’Reilly, its chief of police, Ronald Haddad, 17 City police officers, and two executives from the American Arab Chamber of Commerce on behalf of Acts 17 Apologetics, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla, and Josh Hogg—the Christians whose rights were violated by the City officials. [Read more about this lawsuit and watch the stunning videos of the arrests of the Christians here].

Muise commented, “The judge’s ruling today is a huge victory for these Christians. It allows the civil rights claims for the most egregious constitutional violations to proceed against the City and its officials. AFLC is committed to ensuring that our Constitution and not sharia law, which makes it a crime to preach the Gospel to Muslims, is the supreme law in this country.”

In their motion, the City had argued that the state court judge’s finding in the criminal proceeding that the police officers had probable cause to arrest the Christians based on a complaint from festival worker Roger Williams effectively immunized the City of Dearborn and the individual defendants from civil suit. Muise and Yerushalmi, on behalf of the Christians, countered by arguing that the ruling does not preclude the civil rights claims because it was based upon fabricated allegations and besides, the Christians did not have a full and fair opportunity to challenge the claims in the police reports prior to the ruling. The federal judge agreed with the AFLC attorneys.

In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy, III, stated, “It is a reasonable inference from their allegations that [City officials] knew Williams’ complaint was pretextual.” The federal judge noted that “[t]he indirect evidence of this conspiracy that was developed in state court and is already a part of the record in this case—including the videos and the testimony given by [City police officers] at their trial—elevates [the Christians’] accusations above the threshold of plausibility. . . .” The federal judge also stated, “The [state] district judge appears to have presumed the police reports submitted were truthful, and staked his probable cause determination on that presumption. Plaintiffs had no opportunity to either cross-examine the officers or take the stand themselves to contest the reports.” The judge concluded, “Finally, the district court was inattentive to the effect Plaintiffs’ claims of First Amendment protection might have on the probable cause determination. . . . The Sixth Circuit has warned on previous occasions that Michigan’s ‘breach of peace’ statute is prone to such abuse.”

Yerushalmi concluded, “This case is a stunning example of the pernicious influence of stealth jihad and sharia law in America. The City of Dearborn is now a serial violator of Christians’ constitutional rights and has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and costs defending its insidious conduct. Apparently, in Dearborn, where sharia and jihad are advocated openly, it is a crime to preach the Christian Gospel. AFLC is committed to stopping this attack on our Constitution. And the ruling today allows us to do just that.”

The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.

For those who haven't seen it, here's the unedited footage of our arrests:



And here's what happened two days later, when we attempted to pass out materials outside the festival:



For more on Dearborn, click here.

15 comments:

gspencer said...

The importance of sight and sound recordings. Given that Dearborn is now a "serial" civil rights offender, things that happen in Dearborn should presumptively be seen as violating civil rights. This is quite a distinction to have slapped onto your city. We're looking at you, government officials (including each one of the cops), and the black heart with which you took the constitutional oath.

Because cops routinely tamper with evidence multiple recording devices s/b used from different angles, some obvious, some not.

Joe Bradley said...

There should also be an attendant "Criminal" civil rights violation trial which will put the, involved, police officers in jail for their Violation of Civil Rights Under The Color of Authority. Last I checked, kidnap, assault, false imprisonment, theft and strong arm robbery were criminal offenses.

Some cops need to do some prison time and the actions of the involved cops exceed the pilfering of a few donuts.

Kufar Dawg said...

I just wanted to say I support Joe Bradley's position. These cops, judges and prosecutors need to prosecuted at the federal level.

Personally, I think we'll be seeing a lot more instances of our police and judiciary violating the civil rights and liberties of non-muslimes on behalf of islamonazism all over the country.

TAREK said...

Dear Dr. David and your team,
I am extremely happy and praying that YAHWEH continues to give you victory after victory. I just hope Ms Kim, Mr. Samatar, prof. Osama Buffoon A. And the rest of muslims will see in this victory the promise of their quran in sura 3 aya 55. By the way prof. Osama Buffoon A. Has gone back into his shield all these days. When he is caught with any issue he backs off. I want to know in which whale (number) is the sun tonight please prof. Osama Buffoon?
Congratulation to you Dr. David and all our brethren.
Prof. Osama Buffoon A. Please come out tell us what do you think of this victory. Ms Kim, I know you do not respond to questions but please tell us with fact(s) what did Dr. David and others wrote or said that isn’t true? Please come up with only one point. If you have none then take your time to study your religion please. Because every time you post something in this blog you are always rejecting your sources. If you aren’t happy with your sources please you are free to openly blame Ibn Abbas and the rest for not explaining the quran according to your understanding.
I had invited you before and I want to renew my call to the true religion please imams are seeing the truth and the are changing as well as muslims doctors. Ms Kim be the true follower of JESUS please.
MAY YAHWEH BLESS you all in the HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS AMEN.

simple_truth said...

That is very good news! I hope the rest of the proceedings go well.

Dk said...

Congratulations

Made me very happy to see the counter suit.

www.AnsweringAbraham.com
- Dk

Radical Moderate said...

WOW Good news, no GREAT NEWS

Billy said...

Muslim taxpayers of Dearborn forced to pay a penalty for enforcing Sharia, is this reverse Jizya?

Traeh said...

Congratulations!

The Berean Search said...

This is excellent news!! Thank you to all involved, those who were in harms way having their rights violated and the attorneys who are representing them! Thank you for defending my Constitutional rights!

minoria said...

Hello,

To all concerned,antisharia.com has been hacked and it has a virus,so do no go there because the virus could introduce malware into your computer and ruin it.

If you want to go there then go to an internet cafe.But as long as you see words in RED LETTERS,it is not safe to go to it at home.Hopefully Antoine will solve the problem soon.Thanks for understanding.

Anonymous said...

It's funny how that one guy walks up to the microphone( in the first video) and says "their God died" and then walks away. How hilarious.


I really enjoyed the Zakir Naik impression by the youngster
i.e. challenging the Christian to produce one "Unequivocal" statement in the bible that Jesus is God.


I don't know what's funnier the DVD analogy he uses to "refute" the incarnation or his claim that Jesus was a Muslim.

minoria said...

Great news David!

And another great news is that antisharia.com is now free of the virus,so you can all safely read there again,like:

"Article I about the Enslavement of Christians by the Muslims in Western Literature:Lord Byron"

http://www.antisharia.com/2012/02/07/article-i-about-the-enslavement-of-christians-by-the-muslims-in-western-literaturelord-byron/

Ex N1hilo said...

LOL @ reverse Jizya.

Apollos26 said...

Dear brothers,

I wouldn't have talked to the idiot who used in every sentence the f-word. that was throwing pearls before swine!!!