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JUDGE
PENICK'S RULING 2-22-01
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT IN AND FOR
PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA
CASE NO. 99-7430-CI-08
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FLAG SERVICE
ORGANIZATION, INC., a Florida
corporation,
Petitioner,
vs.
ROBERT S. MINTON, JR., ET AL.,
Respondents.
BEFORE: The Honorable THOMAS E. PENICK, JR.
PLACE: Pinellas County Judicial Building
545 First Avenue North
St. Petersbrg, Florida
DATE: January 21, 2001
TIME: Commencing at 2:00 PA.M.
REPORTED BY: JACKIE L. OSTROM
Court Reporter
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RULING
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Pages 1 - 50
ROBERT A. DEMPSTER & ASSOCIATES
P.O. BOX 35
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA
(727) 443-0992
.
APPEARANCES
The Honorable THOMAS E. PENICK, JR.
CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE
F. WALLACE POPE, JR., ESQUIRE
JOHNSON, BLAKELY, POPE ET AL
911 Chestnut
Clearwater, Florida
HELENA KOBRIN, ESQUIRE
MOXON AND KOBRIN
3055 Whilshire Boulevard, Suite 900
Los Angeles, California 90010
Attorneys for Church of Scientology Flag Ship
Organization
JOHN MERRETT, ESQUIRE
2716 Herschel Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32205
BRUCE G. HOWIE, ESQUIRE
PIPER, LUDIN, HOWIE AND WERNER
5720 Central Avenue
St. Petersburg, Florida 33707
Attorneys for Robert Minton and
Lisa McPherson Trust, Inc.
. 3
1 PROCEEDINGS
2 THE COURT: No tape recorders. We have
3 an official court reporter taking them and if
4 you're press or something we have a procedure
5 where you come request or identify, the same
6 that we have for the cameras. Press?
7 UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'm a reporter
8 from the Times. I'm sorry, I didn't realize
9 your procedures, sir.
10 THE COURT: Yeah. I don't care.
11 UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If you don't
12 want me to, I won't.
13 THE COURT: No, but remember, remember,
14 she's press now, okay. That doesn't go
15 for -- no, there's special procedures we
16 follow and we have followed in all these
17 cases, ma'am, and I'm not doing anything and
18 I'm not singling you out.
19 UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I understand.
20 THE COURT: But that's okay. I'll let
21 you do it. Go ahead. Okay. And Mr. Bunker,
22 the same rules apply here.
23 Remember, now, you've already had your
24 one bite at the apple. If those start
25 making noises or, you know, then they're
. 4
1 mine.
2 Okay. All right. All right. Thank you
3 for your patience.
4 I think the court system has been
5 patient with you all, and what looked like
6 some simple show causes have consumed nine
7 days of in-court proceedings. Many
8 witnesses and a lot of exhibits, a lot of
9 videotaping, and it's now the Court's time
10 to render its decision regarding the matters
11 that were brought forward.
12 Now, first let me do this. I would like
13 to thank the attorneys for an outstanding
14 job of representing their clients. The
15 Court is not unmindful of the fact that in
16 making oral arguments and presentations and
17 cross-examining witnesses there comes a time
18 some of the time when a little theatrics
19 gets involved.
20 I'm not trying to say that there wasn't
21 some tension here at times between
22 attorneys, but I do thank you for backing
23 down rather than pressing the issue. There
24 was some times when I felt that I might have
25 to intercede more than I wanted to, but on a
. 5
1 whole they were very eloquent arguments,
2 excellent cross-examination, but a lot has
3 come out during these nine days of
4 proceedings.
5 What started out with a temporary
6 injunction actually started a year ago
7 because we had a temporary last year and
8 then again this year there was the necessity
9 for a temporary injunction, the Court
10 designed what we could call a loose and
11 general injunction. But I did go to what I
12 felt were great length to color code it or
13 make it visually understandable, knowing
14 full well when I did that that with the
15 intelligence level that was evidenced last
16 year that it was going to be like the OSHA
17 rules and regulations for safety at a
18 construction site.
19 You know, they say well, you have this,
20 that and the other and you have a safety
21 net. If you don't spell out the size of
22 holes in the safety net, they'll have a
23 safety net with five feet between each hole
24 so even a bulldozer falls through it.
25 That's what happened here. Both sides
. 6
1 found every loophole possible. And you're
2 going to have that when you have AB lawyers
3 and you have people that comprise the
4 parties that we have in this case.
5 Ladies and gentlemen, the talent, the
6 technology and the expertise on both sides
7 is awesome. Any good small business would
8 love to have your talents available to them.
9 Technicians in videography, technicians in
10 electronics, technicians in mechanical
11 design, technicians in computers, and you
12 couple all of that with two sides that has
13 strong feelings. I mean, we're talking
14 about super strong feelings here, folks.
15 It was very clear to this court beyond
16 any reasonable doubt that there is no love
17 lost between either side and both of you
18 will go to the ends of the earth to make
19 your point. So it's kind of hard for one
20 little old judge sitting in St. Petersburg,
21 Florida to close all of the holes in the
22 dikes or the dike that's separating you two.
23 Now, where is all this going? Well,
24 folks, you all have already agreed. It's
25 been said -- I mean how many times did I
. 7
1 hear it from the witnesses that both sides
2 appreciated the injunction, they you were
3 glad there was the ten feet and that you
4 want a permanent injunction.
5 Now, let me tells you was scares me.
6 This permanent injunction is probably going
7 to be thicker than the Random House
8 Unabridged Dictionary Second Edition, and
9 that thing is about ten inches high. And
10 with the diagrams that are going to be
11 necessity just to encompass the danger
12 zones, as I call them, that have come out in
13 these proceedings, the diagrams will exceed
14 the blueprints for the International Space
15 Lab. And I'm not being naive or sarcastic.
16 I'm telling you facts of life.
17 I didn't count them all up, but I
18 imagine there were probably at least 25
19 different allegations of contempt with all
20 of the various defendants and all of the
21 various events and all of that took place in
22 less than a month of having the injunction
23 in effect.
24 Now, a lot of it was much ado about
25 nothing. Unfortunately, a lot of it was
. 8
1 adult nursery school antics, and I said it
2 earlier and I'm totally convinced of it now.
3 This calls for a professional nanny and not
4 a judge.
5 You know what's scary? All of this has
6 international flavor. I mean several days
7 we had the French media here, French
8 lawyers, the German government has been
9 here, representatives from of Hamburg
10 government, and all of this is going on, not
11 in Clearwater, not in St. Petersburg, but
12 all over the word. I mean name calling
13 taunting, teasing, stalking, yelling,
14 screaming, games of Hide and Seek, King of
15 the Mountain, Blind Man's Bluff, Red Rover
16 Red Rover, Picket Chicken.
17 That's just the videotape that was
18 entered into evidence. I don't know who has
19 the franchise to sell you all the videotapes
20 but somebody is getting filthy rich.
21 Now, what did we learn? The first thing
22 we learned is the battle lines are blurred.
23 Each side has a different spin on what the
24 injunction says.
25 And I've asked the attorney for the
. 9
1 Clearwater Police Department to be present
2 here today when I announced my findings and
3 my decision because the Clearwater Police
4 Department has tried to tell each of the
5 sides what the injunction said and they have
6 their own spin on what's involved.
7 Unfortunately, the lines have become
8 very blurred in exactly what is picketing,
9 what is protesting, what is the exercise of
10 the First Amendment Right, what is a picket
11 device, what is a First Amendment device,
12 etcetera, etcetera. And this case has its
13 own unique features.
14 Usually, if there is a question about
15 what an injunction or a document that's been
16 drawn by a judge says, in the past it's been
17 my experience that if you don't understand
18 it, you come back and ask the judge. But
19 there was far too much street justice being
20 meeded out by either off-duty or on-duty
21 Clearwater police officers.
22 Quite frankly, they led to a lot of the
23 confusion here of which charges could not
24 stick because these officers would tell the
25 people one thing today and turn around the
. 10
1 tell the next thing tomorrow after somebody
2 else has taken a course of action.
3 Let give you some examples. Mr. Henson
4 is a good example. He asked where can I
5 picket. I'm not with the LMT. I need to
6 know what's going on. That's fine. You can
7 picket there in front of the hotel. Have a
8 ball. Clearwater police tell him that.
9 So, Scientology rushes into court, gets
10 a show cause on him saying you can't picket
11 on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. He
12 asks the police again. They said woops, no,
13 you've got to be on the other side of the
14 street, so I waste a whole day on that show
15 cause.
16 What is a picket? Well, if you turn the
17 sign upside down and you march that way,
18 it -- common sense would tell you that's not
19 a picket. But yet, we saw videos and there
20 is a video there where somebody is leaning
21 on a sign turned upside down and the police
22 officer walks over and pats it on the butt
23 end of the thing sticking up in the air with
24 the words down saying this is a picket. I
25 waste more time.
. 11
1 Now, the other thing that bothered me
2 immensely is that all good -- you know, no
3 good deed goes unpunished, seriously, and
4 you've just got to love the Clearwater
5 police.
6 They're trying has hard as they can and
7 they're caught in middle of this just like I
8 am and something for the good of the masses,
9 a chance for the off-duty officers to make
10 some extra money and they're trying to do
11 their job, but it's become obvious to me
12 that they're getting a little more help than
13 they need from the people that are paying
14 their bill. And they're coming very
15 dangerously close to being a private
16 security force for the Church of
17 Scientology.
18 Now, that's something that's got to be
19 worked out by both side together with the
20 police department of Clearwater, their
21 attorneys. I think all lawyers need to sit
22 down and hammer this out because there have
23 been instances where the independents, if
24 that's why they're there, is shaky at best.
25 And, you know, it became obvious that
. 12
1 this side has this police agency and the
2 other side is over here and they want to use
3 a police agency to protect their protest
4 zones, what's to keep them from getting the
5 sheriff's office or the Florida Highway
6 Patrol off duty? What are they going to
7 have to do, go get FDLE? I'm serious about
8 this folks.
9 Another example of the blurred line,
10 process servers. Process server is supposed
11 to be an officer of the court serving
12 documents of the court. When I was asked to
13 make that modification to the injunction
14 that said that process servers, and let me
15 get that quote. Any process server retained
16 by any party to this action pursuant to the
17 laws of the State of Florida and the
18 applicable rules of court, is free to
19 legally -- I wrote that in and put my
20 initials out there, serve process on any
21 person notwithstanding the terms of
22 temporary injunction number two inasmuch as
23 such process server would be an agent of
24 this court for the purpose of serving
25 process.
. 13
1 Now, folks, I had some severe heartburn
2 about the independence of so-called arms of
3 this court. When we get around to
4 redrafting and working on this permanent
5 injunction and I'll talk about that in a few
6 minutes, there needs to be some special
7 provisions that the process servers are
8 going to have to come from a pool of process
9 servers somehow determined by the three of
10 you or this court included and they can't
11 work at any other time for anybody. But
12 when I see so-called process servers forming
13 armed chains so the people can get in and
14 out of the Church of Scientology, which was
15 caused by disruptions of other side, I
16 question the independence of the process
17 server. I'm not that gullible. That
18 doesn't cut it, folks.
19 Now, let me make it real clear that when
20 we come up with a permanent injunction, I
21 want language in there that basically says
22 that it will be independent process servers
23 and they well serve process legally and
24 professionally so that they don't violate
25 any rules or statute in the State of
. 14
1 Florida, and also I want it worked into the
2 injunction that when these independent
3 process servers duly certified and appointed
4 attempt to serve process pursuant to the
5 laws, that any shenanigans as far as not
6 taking it, throwing it on the ground and
7 everything else will be deemed a hinderance
8 of the progress of justice, that the
9 applicable a statutes of laws will be
10 applied and that regardless of what the law
11 says can be meeded out for punishment, it
12 will be a per se contempt enforceable by
13 contempt. Because, I'm telling you, that's
14 got to stop. And that's going to be part of
15 the injunction.
16 Self help: I am amazed at the quality
17 of technology that both sides have available
18 to themselves. Folks, like I said, I am but
19 a pebble of sand on this mountain or a
20 molehill, whichever you want to call it, but
21 when I look at the technology and the
22 knowledge on the internet alone and all of
23 these websites and everything you were
24 showing me and the stuff that's posted, not
25 posted and the graphics and all that, you
. 15
1 leave me way behind.
2 As Technology Chairman for this circuit,
3 I keep trying to tell the Chief Judge and
4 Mr. Lockhart and all of his computer people,
5 listen to me this. There is all this stuff
6 out there and I thought we were on the
7 cutting edge. Man, you all got the
8 computer. We got Nintendo.
9 Now, something else that concerns me,
10 folks and it puts this in proper
11 prospective. For this court to try and
12 draft a workable injunction is really scary
13 when you consider the international
14 implications that are going on here, when
15 you consider the technology that's involved,
16 when you consider the local governments.
17 Now, let me talk about technology a
18 little bit further. I'm concerned that
19 Picket Chicken is but a rouge to hide the
20 moving of the shell with a pea under it.
21 Let's talk about the spy camera. Let's
22 talk about self help. Ladies and gentlemen,
23 as the judge on this case and after
24 listening to everything, nine days worth, I
25 understand now, I have a much better grasp
. 16
1 for the seriousness of the feelings between
2 both sides and I have a far greater grasp of
3 the seriousness that the Clearwater police
4 find themselves in out there in the
5 trenches. Because both sides having
6 videographers sitting around at alert, ready
7 to rush out with a video camera for the
8 least little thing to film the other side, I
9 harken to back to my days when I spent
10 thousands of hours on alert stranded in a
11 mole hole halfway around the world and you
12 all make like you have your videographers
13 and cameramen on bicycles respond to the
14 incidents and everything else.
15 To place a camera in the down spout on
16 the building, I'm missing the point here. I
17 hope someone will let us know when the great
18 invasion is coming. Give the citizens a
19 head start.
20 Sophisticated cameras hidden in the
21 shrubbery around the apartment houses;
22 taking pictures of people going up and down
23 Saturn to go to the little league ball park.
24 I'm missing something.
25 I don't know how we're going to handle
. 17
1 it. I understand that it's a sticky wicket.
2 How do you come into court and say, Judge, I
3 mean obvious cameras and hidden cameras and
4 everything else we know they're there and I
5 say, okay, prove it and you say we can't put
6 the ladder up and we can't go there because
7 it's going to be in a no go zone or
8 something.
9 But I don't see this coming to an end.
10 I'm concerned. You know, the great attorney
11 Jerry Spence in introduction to his latest
12 book talks about the fox slowly eating
13 everybody around that's in the outer circle
14 and then the next circle and the next circle
15 and the next circle until they finally get
16 into everybody in the middle. When is all
17 this going to stop?
18 Transitional movements: Okay, not all
19 the picket areas are adjacent to each other.
20 And I knew when I drafted the injunction and
21 I sat there and I looked at that and I said,
22 you know, right now all the different ways
23 that something can happen as they go from
24 one area where they can picket to the next
25 area, how they going to cross Ft. Harrison?
. 18
1 How are they going to go across Cleveland?
2 And you know, after I had written about two
3 pages of this yellow tablet it suddenly
4 dawned on me. Leave it alone. You couldn't
5 plug those holes if you tried and you've
6 proved me right.
7 Now, the thing that concerns me is
8 really and truly, you know, in a lot of the
9 pickets and a lot of the protest around our
10 country there is a message or you're trying
11 not only to reach the people that might be
12 coming or going from a particular facility,
13 but you also have a message for the public
14 as a whole.
15 Quite frankly, everything I've heard
16 here and everything I saw, this is a feud
17 between the parties. I haven't seen any
18 messages for the general public.
19 These were messages to people within
20 Scientology to get out, you know, what's
21 wrong here, what's wrong there, come to us,
22 help us and this was a fight to the other
23 side to stifle the people exercising their
24 First Amendment Rights trying to reach the
25 people inside the Church. But the taxpayers
. 19
1 and the public as a whole have been burdened
2 with this.
3 Now, knowledge: I see a problem. We
4 have a problem. How do you reach somebody
5 who just comes into town and is not a named
6 defendant or doesn't know what's going on.
7 Now, fortunately this hasn't reached the
8 size of the masses that that's been a major
9 problem. The legislatures a long time ago
10 came up with those catch all phrases that
11 are in the rules and the statutes regarding
12 injunctions.
13 That works up to a point, but in the
14 permanent injunction there's going to have
15 to be something worked out so that you don't
16 have one group across the street in the
17 orange zone where they can legally protest
18 and a whole bunch of other people blocking
19 traffic claiming ignorance because it's only
20 going to get worse and it's going to get
21 messy.
22 Now, fortunately we had some real close
23 instances where the water could have broken
24 through the dike and this could have gotten
25 real bad and I'm talking about the so-called
. 20
1 neutral zones.
2 If this weren't criminal proceedings and
3 it required specific documents and specific
4 pleadings, there were several instances
5 where some of the OSA agents for the Church
6 were in violation of the injunction, i.e.
7 riding a bicycle in and out of the orange
8 zone within ten feet of the protesters,
9 rushing out into neutral zone to get the
10 video camera in the policeman and
11 Mr. Minton's face; instances like that.
12 That's something we're going to address
13 in the permanent injunction, but if
14 something's going on there is a little
15 tete-a-tete between say Mr. Minton and the
16 so-called off-duty police officers, there is
17 no need for the Scientology OSA agent to be
18 in there with that camera in everybody's
19 face. They're only asking for trouble and
20 it will only be a matter of minutes until
21 you get it from them and then we'll be all
22 back here again and here we go again. Like
23 I said the other day, I know there are
24 things bigger and better that you can put
25 your energies to.
. 21
1 Now, a couple of instances; video
2 cameras, spy cameras or not video, spy
3 camera incident: Let me just suffice it to
4 say there was a winner going there until we
5 got into that rebuttal. When we went back
6 and revisited everything, that was
7 embarrassing. That's all I'm going to say.
8 You know what I'm talking about. The bread
9 went in, the bread came out. There was no
10 hinderance, nothing else. That's over.
11 Sitting in the Santa Claus chair: You
12 know, that was a classic example of the
13 injunction not being eight inches high.
14 You can't have a definition for
15 everything. When you're dealing with clear
16 and convincing and you have to consider what
17 it will look like when it goes through the
18 appellate hopper, it wasn't there. But I
19 hope in the future when it's spelled out
20 enough that that's taunting, teasing,
21 rubbing their nose in it, whatever you want
22 to call it, that's got to stop.
23 Now, let's talk about something else.
24 The use of megaphones, horns, other noise
25 makers, screaming, yelling, etcetera. Where
. 22
1 this is headed folks that concerns me is
2 that a court is not going to be prepared to
3 deal with this. I can't draw an injunction
4 to say that you can't honk the horn that
5 many decibels, that you got -- you can't
6 scream except only so loud, etcetera.
7 That's going to be government's job.
8 That's the local municipalities. They've
9 got to establish their noise ordinances.
10 They've got to establish their littering.
11 If you're going to take documents and throw
12 them down, if you're going to hand out
13 documents and people are going to throw them
14 down, that's going to be up to either the
15 local city, the town, the county or the
16 state or the feds.
17 Now, we can humbly try, but that goes
18 back to the source and that goes back to the
19 law enforcement officers for the source.
20 That if they're out there and they know
21 their ordinances, that's where I question
22 can an off-duty policeman do something as
23 opposed to hearing it and having to call the
24 on-duty to come over and by the time he gets
25 there you could hear two roaches talking and
. 23
1 I mean pests. I'm not talking about
2 anything else.
3 It concerns me, so a lot of this, what I
4 feel is necessary to keep peace, that's
5 going to have to be worked out at a lot of
6 levels.
7 Now, we've gone down the various events
8 pretty much with the judgment of acquitals
9 and those arguments thereto and it actually
10 comes down to two events and two instances.
11 After all of this was said and
12 done -- now, let me go at this one at a
13 time. The first one that I have involves
14 Ms. Bezazian. And it involves the incident
15 on the 7th of December the year 2000. And
16 it involves the walking down the east side
17 of Ft. Harrison on the north side of the
18 Bank of Clearwater Building in a no picket
19 zone carrying two picket signs upright so
20 that everybody can read them.
21 Let's do this. Ms. Bezazian, would you
22 and your attorney come to the rostrum?
23 Ms. Bezazian, you were charged by an
24 order to show cause violating this court's
25 injunction on the 30th of November, the year
. 24
1 2000 as amended on December 1, the year
2 2000, by willfully and intentionally
3 picketing in an injunction prohibited zone,
4 i.e. that area next to the Ft. Harrison
5 Hotel by walking through that area with two
6 picket signs held high.
7 Now, I do find you guilty of violating
8 the injunction or of contempt of court for
9 that action. Is there any reason why
10 sentence should not be imposed at this time?
11 MS. BEZAZIAN: Your Honor, I'm very
12 sorry that I had those signs up, but I was
13 walking from the Trust to the Ft. Harrison
14 and the policewoman did say, as soon as she
15 said and she did say I know you're not
16 picketing but it might look like it because
17 your signs are up. Would you please put them
18 down and I did put them down.
19 MR. MERRETT: The only other thing that
20 I would add for the Court is that as the
21 Court mentioned there had previously been a
22 police lieutenant telling Ms. Bezazian that
23 holding them upside down was picketing,
24 leaving a set of facts where it was
25 impossible to move from the Lisa McPherson
. 25
1 Trust to any orange zone if both of those
2 officers were to be believed. However, as to
3 legal cause why sentence should not be
4 imposed, there is none.
5 THE COURT: All right.
6 MR. MERRETT: Judge, I would ask rather
7 that the Court enter a judgment of not guilty
8 notwithstanding the verdict.
9 THE COURT: In this particular case I
10 will do that and the sentence will be $100
11 fine. That concludes this as far as that is
12 concerned and as far as Ms. Bezazian is
13 concerned.
14 MR. MERRETT: That is a withhold of
15 adjudication?
16 THE COURT: Yes, sir.
17 MR. MERRETT: Thank you, Your Honor.
18 THE COURT: Now, I know that there is a
19 question to whether in contempt you can
20 withhold. Now, in this incident I'm going to
21 withhold and impose the $100 fine.
22 MR. MERRETT: Yes, sir. Is that $100
23 costs or $100 fine together with the
24 statutory addition?
25 THE COURT: No. Fine, period, end of
. 26
1 ball game.
2 MR. MERRETT: Yes, sir.
3 MS. BEZAZIAN: Thank you, Your Honor.
4 THE COURT: That's it. Now, I want this
5 clear. Legally every attorney in here knows
6 that nuances and the problems that the Court
7 had to face in light of the allegations and
8 the charges based on the evidence. And when
9 you've got to go beyond a reasonable doubt
10 there are only two instances that I was about
11 to go beyond a reasonable doubt and find.
12 But I don't want anybody to think that with
13 this whole big pile, the next time around I
14 think both sides know how to make a case and
15 I figure it won't take me nine hours to
16 listen to the testimony and make a ruling
17 that will probably include jail, so hear me
18 out. Thank you, ma'am.
19 Now, the other matter that I have
20 involves Robert S. Minton and this one I
21 want to make real clear. A judge has to do
22 what a judge has to do.
23 I was deeply concerned on this one,
24 because no matter what I did there would be
25 comments made that well, you were biased,
. 27
1 you were prejudiced, you were wearing your
2 feelings on your robe, but quite frankly,
3 when you look at the video and you look at
4 that video and you look at that video, the
5 Court does find, as to Robert Minton the
6 Court finds that Mr. Minton willfully and
7 intentionally violated the injunction of
8 January 6 in the year 2001 by walking into
9 the injunction's prohibited zone from the
10 west sidewalk abutting Waterson Avenue in
11 Clearwater, Florida and protesting or
12 otherwise engaging in First Amendment
13 activity.
14 Specifically, the defendant went to
15 within one or two feet of the Scientology
16 building known as the Clearwater Bank
17 Building and vertically extended and waved a
18 fishing pole with a copy of the injunction
19 attached to the end of the pole referred to
20 throughout the proceedings as the "Threep",
21 in front of the windows of the building in a
22 taunting manner likely to provoke.
23 I find Robert Minton therefore guilty of
24 contempt as charged in Paragraph 1F, the
25 order to show cause regarding contempt dated
. 28
1 January 10 in the year 2001.
2 Mr. Howie, Mr. Minton, is there any
3 reason why sentence should not be imposed?
4 MR. HOWIE: No legal cause, Your Honor.
5 We wish to be heard in mitigation.
6 THE COURT: You may, sir.
7 MR. HOWIE: Your Honor, again, although
8 the Court has stated that there is some legal
9 concern over adjudication or withhold of
10 adjudication, we would request a withhold of
11 adjudication in this case.
12 I would also point out that in imposing
13 any sentence the offer of two concerns for
14 the court. One is the penalty imposed for
15 violation of the Court's injunction.
16 Another concern is the extent to which harm
17 or damage was caused as a direct result or
18 even an indirect result of that violation.
19 I would point out as the Court is well
20 aware, that there is no allegation, no
21 evidence presented that any actual harm rose
22 out of this. I think if anything the Court
23 should do is by way of affirmatively stating
24 for all concerned, no just Mr. Minton but
25 for all concerned, that there are going to
. 29
1 be certain activities that are going to be
2 completely barred and that this is an
3 example of them.
4 I think it's more significant the Court
5 has made this ruling and that people have
6 heard this ruling than any penalty that can
7 be imposed. I ask that the court limit its
8 contempt power to the imposition of a fine
9 and that that fine clearly reflects the
10 extent of the damage caused.
11 THE COURT: Mr. Minton, do you want to
12 say anything other than what you've said so
13 far or do you want to stand on what your
14 attorney said? I'm not forcing to it. I'm
15 giving you an opportunity to if you wanted to
16 avail yourself of it.
17 MR. MINTON: Yes, Your Honor, I would be
18 happy to say a few words if you wouldn't
19 mind.
20 You know, I am sorry that you have
21 chosen to view this in the way that you
22 have. I, certainly judging by the -- on the
23 basis of the comments that you've made
24 throughout the course of today's events I've
25 certainly learned a lot about how you view
. 30
1 this injunction and how everybody else
2 should view this injunction.
3 I apologize for appearing in any way to
4 hold the court in any contempt with respect
5 to this incident which was done as
6 carelessness at the worst and that's really
7 all I have say, sir.
8 (Whereupon, a pause in the proceedings took
9 place.)
10 THE COURT: Here's what I'm going to do
11 in this case. Mr. Minton, you certainly are
12 a moving force in the protest movement of the
13 Church of Scientology. You have obviously
14 many good ideas and thoughts on how legally
15 and peacefully the message can get out.
16 I've thought about this quite a bit.
17 What I will do is I'll withhold
18 adjudication, I'm going to place you on
19 probation for six months. The conditions of
20 probation is that you pay a fine of $500,
21 that you live and remain at liberty without
22 violating any laws or any other injunctions,
23 temporary or permanent entered by this
24 court, that you pay any costs of probation
25 that may be lawfully imposed by the
. 31
1 administration of probation, and that you,
2 in cooperation with your attorney, work to
3 draft the permanent injunction that will
4 make this peacefully be a viable document
5 for your side, the other side and the City
6 of Clearwater.
7 MR. MINTON: Yes, Your Honor.
8 THE COURT: I see talent there. I don't
9 want to say it's misguided. I just want it
10 directed the right way.
11 MR. MINTON: Yes, sir.
12 THE COURT: And I want you to understand
13 that everything would have been fine,
14 probably, I don't know, if you had kept that
15 Threep out horizontal, but when you raised it
16 vertical you and I know good and well that
17 that was a symbol of your exercising your
18 First Amendment Rights in the wrong area and
19 I might just throw this out also.
20 If you take a look at the law of, which
21 a member of my staff reminded me. Thank
22 you, Mr. Bailiff, by holding that Threep in
23 your hand, it's an extension of your body so
24 the ten feet actually starts at the end of
25 the pole. Am I not right, Mr. Howie?
. 32
1 MR. HOWIE: Your Honor, I recall
2 something in tort law about that and I
3 figured that may not include criminal law, so
4 I didn't mention it.
5 THE COURT: Well, of course, if you hold
6 a baton in your hand and you strike somebody
7 that's a battery. You don't have to use your
8 fist, so I'm wondering if that thing -- where
9 does the ten feet really start? It may be a
10 20 foot pole before you know it, but anyway,
11 my point I want to make here is that we've
12 got to, after all this we've come down to
13 this and I admonish, beseech and beg both
14 sides, please -- I'm scared to say this. I
15 want to say graduate from kindergarten. but
16 my gosh, if your expertise at the
17 kindergarten level has been this great,
18 what's it going to be if I say act like high
19 school students.
20 Please, now, we've come a long way. I
21 don't have anything. Is there anything else
22 that anybody wants to say for the good of
23 the Court?
24 MR. HOWIE: Your Honor, for purposes of
25 clarification, I take it that given the
. 33
1 nature of the sentence you would want
2 Mr. Minton to report to Salvation Army?
3 THE COURT: Yes, yes, yes, and let's
4 just get this on down the road, okay.
5 MR. HOWIE: And we request 24 hours in
6 which to do that.
7 THE COURT: You have it and if you --
8 I'll come out with a new written order and
9 get the attachments and I will sign it today
10 in both cases. And also -- now, wait a
11 minute. There's another one I've got to do.
12 That's all with you all. Thank you very
13 much. Yes, Mr. Minton?
14 MR. MINTON: You asked if there was a
15 comment to make --
16 THE COURT: Yeah.
17 MR. MINTON: In the interest of the
18 Court and it does have to do with a very
19 heated argument I had a couple nights ago
20 with Mr. Merrett on the injunction itself and
21 rather than go and drawing anything, I'll
22 just say --
23 THE COURT: What's your question?
24 MR. MINTON: With regard to the four
25 corners at the intersection of Cleveland and
. 34
1 Ft. Harrison Avenue.
2 THE COURT: Yeah.
3 MR. MINTON: The southeast corner is the
4 only orange zone. Obviously, the northeast
5 corner of the Clearwater Bank Building is a
6 prohibited picketing area.
7 THE COURT: Right.
8 MR. MINTON: But my contention based on
9 the injunction before the clarification that
10 you made was that the northwest corner and
11 the southwest corner were, because they're
12 not around Scientology buildings that those
13 are permitted picketing areas and that's what
14 I'm asking you for at least minor
15 clarification from the Court on because those
16 areas that are not around Scientology
17 buildings that do appear in some form or
18 fashion on these maps due to the second
19 clarification of the injunction has now cause
20 some additional confusion.
21 THE COURT: Those are open zones.
22 MR. MINTON: Right.
23 THE COURT: Probably Mr. Merrett is
24 going to say, but Judge, you didn't stick by
25 me, but quite frankly when I drew those up I
. 35
1 saw that and I knew but what would apply
2 there is ten feet away from everybody.
3 Now, I don't know, then you get into the
4 King of the Mountain routine that if you're
5 there first and then they come and want to
6 cross, do you have to back up ten feet or do
7 they have to back up ten feet and I'm not
8 prepared to answer that right now.
9 That's one of the dilemmas we've got and
10 they've got to be able to get from the Bank
11 of Clearwater Building to the Church and you
12 got to be able to get from the Church or
13 from your building back and forth.
14 MR. MINTON: Right. Obviously, my
15 question in that respect and I appreciate
16 that comment that you made, was that by
17 positioning someone on the southwest corner
18 and somebody -- no, not the southwest, the --
19 THE COURT: Southeast corner.
20 MR. MINTON: Southeast corner and the
21 northwest corner you would be playing games
22 by putting people there and I understand
23 that.
24 THE COURT: I realized when I drew this
25 up and I looked at that and I thought, you
. 36
1 know, if you read all those abortion clinic
2 cases and I don't give you one street corner
3 somewhere, I don't think the appellate courts
4 would back me up. And I looked at one where
5 there was no entrance way or anything else
6 and I gave you a street corner and that was
7 the southeast street corner.
8 MR. MINTON: Right.
9 THE COURT: Now, that's enough.
10 MR. MINTON: Yes, sir, and I think that,
11 you know, judging from what you said
12 extending that to the north side of Pierce
13 Street which I believe is the one that runs
14 along the side of the Ft. Harrison that
15 wouldn't be prohibited there when it's
16 obviously prohibited on the south side or
17 permitted on the south side.
18 THE COURT: Well, you know, what do you
19 do walking across that block from Pierce up
20 to, up there where you -- the south side of
21 the Coachman Building, the parking lot. And
22 quite frankly, you know, like I said, I can't
23 cover everything. And you've been given a
24 big picket area and from the numbers I've
25 seen so far, you can't -- there's not even
. 37
1 any way that there is going to be any
2 crowding or so many people in those areas
3 there that you need the other area. That's
4 all I can say.
5 MR. MINTON: Right, and then one final
6 point on this and a very important point I
7 think that you made is you haven't seen in
8 these videos a message to the general public.
9 Now, the reality of that is that the message
10 is --
11 THE COURT: Bear in mind, I'm not asking
12 for a message to the general public.
13 MR. MINTON: Right.
14 THE COURT: I'm just telling you --
15 MR. MINTON: You haven't see it.
16 THE COURT: -- that this is between you
17 all.
18 MR. MINTON: Right.
19 THE COURT: But you're tying the public
20 up.
21 MR. MINTON: Well, I understand that and
22 I appreciate that the Court has spent
23 considerable time over the last 12 or 14
24 days.
25 THE COURT: Not just the court, but when
. 38
1 I look out there and I think of all the
2 off-duty policemen and the on-duty policemen,
3 I won't ever forget that one video where I
4 counted 11 police cruisers suddenly called
5 and then the police get out with their
6 videographers. I mean what did that cost the
7 taxpayers?
8 MR. MINTON: Yes. Well, the reason that
9 you don't see any videos with the message
10 that we are trying to get to the general
11 public is because those protests are
12 perfectly straightforward and normal and
13 there are plenty of videos of those events.
14 THE COURT: I'm not sure that's your
15 mission either. I'm not asking -- I'm just
16 saying that I think -- I guess what I was
17 trying to say is that I feel the mission is
18 different here. It is a very, very unique
19 situation.
20 MR. MINTON: Yes, sir.
21 THE COURT: This does not fall purely
22 into the abortion clinic mold.
23 MR. MINTON: Right, and I can honestly
24 say, Your Honor, that you know, I am the
25 guiltiest party of --
. 39
1 THE COURT: Maybe you better talk to
2 your attorney here.
3 MR. MINTON: I mean in terms of sort of
4 getting out there and being a little bit
5 aggressive, too aggressive and you know.
6 THE COURT: Well, I put you on probation
7 for six months. I don't know why, but
8 Mr. Minton, am I going to see you again in
9 six months? Good-bye. That's enough. Thank
10 you.
11 MR. MERRETT: Your Honor, excuse me.
12 (Whereupon, the Judge left the bench and
13 then after a moment returned.)
14 THE COURT: Mr. Merrett?
15 MR. MERRETT: Yes, Your Honor.
16 THE COURT: In regards to the spy camera
17 thing, I made my comment earlier.
18 MR. MERRETT: Yes, sir.
19 THE COURT: But I find you not guilty.
20 MR. MERRETT: Thank you.
21 THE COURT: And I find Mr. Merrett not
22 guilty.
23 MR. MERRETT: Mr. Minton, as well.
24 THE COURT: Or Mr. Minton.
25 MR. MERRETT: Thank you. Your Honor,
. 40
1 one matter I wanted to address.
2 THE COURT: Sit down everybody.
3 MR. MERRETT: Your Honor, I assumed that
4 counsel, both for Mr. Minton and for
5 Scientology would stipulate that in the event
6 that an appeal is taken the Threep itself is
7 not a necessary item for review by the
8 appellate court.
9 I would ask ore tenus that the court
10 release it and if I should fail to pick it
11 up by five o'clock this afternoon, dispose
12 of it in some appropriate manner.
13 THE COURT: Okay, and what I will do is
14 request that for the purposes of the file put
15 a photograph of it in there or so that there
16 is at least in the file.
17 MR. MERRETT: Yes, sir.
18 THE COURT: And I guess I'm already on
19 the record previously as saying that boy, I
20 see a future there for somebody if they can
21 figure out the law on whether that's an
22 extension of the body or not for other
23 situations.
24 MR. MERRETT: As I say, Your Honor, I
25 would be gratified if the Court would
. 41
1 undertake to dispose of it should I fail to
2 retrieve it this afternoon.
3 THE COURT: I understand what you're
4 saying and let the record be clear on that.
5 I'll come around the room. Let me get
6 Mr. Pope first.
7 MR. POPE: I had the impression that
8 with regard to Ms. Bezazian there was an open
9 issue about that blocking of the parking lot.
10 THE COURT: Yes, and I found her not
11 guilty there.
12 MR. POPE: Okay.
13 THE COURT: And I'll tell you why. Let
14 me tell you what shot you down big time; UPS.
15 MR. POPE: All right.
16 THE COURT: Hey, if you can't drive your
17 van through a space that a UPS truck gets
18 through, what's blocked?
19 MR. POPE: Okay.
20 THE COURT: Yes, sir.
21 MR. SURETTE: Your Honor, may I address
22 the Court on behalf the Clearwater Police
23 Department?
24 THE COURT: Sure. Yeah, I asked you to
25 come. Go ahead, yes, sir.
. 42
1 MR. SURETTE: It's really my concern
2 based on the videotape that Mr. Bunker --
3 THE COURT: No, now let me make
4 something real clear on that. I recognize
5 that videotape for what it is, biased
6 propaganda.
7 Now, when I go look at these over here
8 with footage galore of Clearwater police
9 officers telling these people what they can
10 and can't do and some of the other
11 instances, it doesn't take a rocket
12 scientist to know what's going on.
13 Now, you want to address that, that's
14 fine. Don't talk to me about that video.
15 That's junk. Sorry, Mark, but that as far
16 as in a court of law, that's exactly what it
17 is.
18 MR. SURETTE: May I approach, Your
19 Honor. I just wanted to make sure that the
20 court has a complete view of some of the
21 background leading up to that videotape and
22 basically --
23 THE COURT: That videotape?
24 MR. SURETTE: That videotape.
25 THE COURT: You can talk all you want,
. 43
1 but I ain't going to sit and listen to it.
2 MR. SURETTE: Well, it's --
3 THE COURT: I told you, I don't have
4 anything to do with that videotape. Well,
5 wait a minute. I'll tell you what I will do.
6 I did allow them the show it. I'll give a
7 forum, but I want the record clear that I'm
8 not -- I'm more concerned about other
9 matters.
10 MR. SURETTE: Well, I think the
11 videotape, however, is a representation of
12 those concerns and that is the number of
13 off-duty --
14 THE COURT: That's their concern.
15 MR. MERRETT: -- who have been working,
16 and what I wanted to do, Your Honor, Chief
17 Klein after he received a copy of
18 Mr. Bunker's videotape and again I would
19 mention that as a representation of the
20 concerns that you've expressed in a memo
21 dated November 9, which I've included in the
22 packet of information, prior to the
23 November 9 memo, the Chief shared that
24 videotape with all the members of his command
25 staff which I was attending the monthly
. 44
1 meeting.
2 Subsequent to that videotape, the Chief
3 went ahead and sent a copy of that videotape
4 to the City Manager and all of the
5 commissioners as well as the press and in
6 that letter he expressed his, basically some
7 of the concerns regarding the videotape and
8 again stated that he recognized that there
9 was friction and confrontations that had
10 been basically continuing, seemingly
11 indefinitely, between the two parties and
12 believed it was in the best interest of the
13 Clearwater citizens and taxpayers to
14 continue allowing off-duty officers to work
15 to maintain the public peace and order.
16 The proverbial rock and the hard place
17 the Clearwater police have found themselves
18 in is trying to deal with two contentious
19 sides that in the past were repeating
20 calling police officers were on duty out to
21 respond to the confrontations.
22 Usually that necessitated a sergeant to
23 respond to the scene and then subsequently
24 the lieutenant, tying up at least three
25 officers from important calls, serious calls
. 45
1 that taxpayers and the citizens of this
2 community --
3 THE COURT: Let that record be real
4 clear that's why I started holding these
5 hearings on the weekend, which cost money to
6 the sheriff's office, because of the
7 shenanigans that are going on here and I was
8 also scheduled to start last week a four to
9 eight week trial, the second known as Son of
10 Pipeline and you know what that means in this
11 county, which had to do with the pipeline
12 bringing water to everybody in this circuit
13 or at least in Pinellas County and my concern
14 was to get this heard. And when my regular
15 trial calendar was such that I could move
16 some of those jury trials and do this, I gave
17 you number one attention to get this taken
18 care of for the good of the policemen and
19 Clearwater.
20 Now, I'm trying to tell you that what I
21 saw on some of this other stuff, it appears
22 that some of your officers are being duped.
23 And if they don't understand exactly how the
24 ordinances or how the junction applies, you,
25 as their attorney, ask for a court hearing.
. 46
1 Now, I know in the past when Mr. Merrett
2 entered the scene there were telephone
3 conferences or question and things were
4 worked out with Paul Johnson, etcetera and
5 Mr. Pope. That was lacking this time. You
6 know it as well as I do.
7 MR. SURETTE: Your Honor, subsequent to
8 the presentations of that tape I had two
9 telephone conversations with Mr. Merrett in
10 which I expressed to him on behalf of Chief
11 Klein the Chief's basic sensitivity to the
12 representations and the allegation that were
13 contained in Mr. Bunker's tape and my
14 specific words were the intent of the
15 telephone call was to open the door, that the
16 Chief did not want numerous officers working
17 off-duty.
18 The Chief already found himself in a
19 position where he provided such services to
20 numerous other churches, Sears and Roebuck,
21 other organizations that he had an
22 obligation to taxpayers, an obligation to
23 treat the Church as he would treat any other
24 organization, however if there was something
25 what Mr. Minton and his organization could
. 47
1 do to limit the activities that were
2 occurring out there that necessitated police
3 response, Chief Klein was prepared to
4 withdraw all of those officers immediately.
5 Now, I presented a packet, Your Honor,
6 and the only purpose of that was to try to
7 demonstrate that there has been an
8 extraordinary effort on behalf of the Chief
9 of Police to ensure the officers acted
10 impartially.
11 There is a training bulletin that I
12 included in the packet, one of which by the
13 way was triggered by the incident contained
14 on that videotape regarding a incident
15 involving an Officer Kelly who told a
16 videographer to go ahead and turn off that
17 and had some confusion regarding
18 interception of oral commmunications,
19 etcetera.
20 The police department is willing to work
21 with both sides in some way to extricating
22 the officers from that situation. It is a
23 no-win situation and I just --
24 THE COURT: I've already put that in the
25 record.
. 48
1 MR. SURETTE: And you're suggesting,
2 Your Honor, that you made regarding attorneys
3 should meet trying to work out some sort of
4 agreement whereby the officers could reduce
5 their presence out there. I think it's an
6 extremely conducive and constructive
7 suggestion.
8 I'm more than willing to meet with both
9 sides and try to work out some solution to
10 reduce the presence of it. But the only
11 purpose of my being here, Your Honor, was to
12 try to ensure that any adverse impression
13 you got based on the representations
14 contained in those tapes in not a complete
15 picture.
16 The officers who work out there --
17 THE COURT: Well, let the record be real
18 clear. I've had both sides telling with
19 these tapes and they've been showing where
20 they're been spliced, doctored, put together
21 upside down, sideways and everything else.
22 So, you know, I fully understand what you're
23 telling me. And I had to deal with them with
24 what they showed and snippets from here and
25 snippets from there and the record is
. 49
1 replete, nine days, where's the whole tape;
2 where's this, where that, but the thing that
3 I am deeply concerned about is that last time
4 things were worked out there seemed to be
5 more of a -- if there was a question, and I
6 mean I went to great lengths to color code
7 this thing and to personally Xerox each copy
8 of my home -- my own cost.
9 Let this record be clear, so that your
10 people in the trenches wouldn't have any
11 questions as far as the designated color
12 areas. And make it clear, but the phone
13 calls and the cooperation that was existent
14 last year was nonexistent this year. And I
15 was here ready willing and able that answer
16 any questions and nobody asked me. Thank
17 you all very much.
18 (Thereupon, the proceedings were
19 concluded.)
20
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22
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25
. 50
1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER
2 STATE OF FLORIDA )
3 COUNTY OF PINELLAS )
4 I, JACKIE L. OSTROM, in and for the
5 Sixth Judicial Circuit, State of Florida:
6 DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing
7 proceedings were had at the time and place
8 set forth in the caption thereof; that I was
9 authorized to and did stenographically
10 report the said proceedings and that the
11 foregoing pages, numbered 1 through 50,
12 inclusive, is a true and correct
13 transcription of said stenographic report.
14 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto
15 affixed my official signature and seal of
16 office this 22nd day of February, 2001 at
17 Clearwater, Pinellas County, Florida.
18
19
20 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴�
JACKIE L. OSTROM
21 Notary Public, State of Florida,
at Large
22
23
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25
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