Attorneys want judgment of liabililty in church suit
The attorneys for the Church of Universal Love and Music, its founder and others who attended a concert on the church’s grounds in Bullskin Township during a 2009 raid want a federal judge to consider a motion that would assign liability to Fayette County for alleged constitutional violations.
Attorneys Gregory O. Koerner and Ronald L. Chicka asked U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose to allow them to file a motion requesting judgment on the liability of the county and related defendants. The request comes after Ambrose ruled last month that an all-persons-present warrant issued during a 2009 raid of the church’s grounds was invalid, and “not supported by probable cause and thus violated the Fourth Amendment.”
That amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure. The warrant, issued by a Fayette County judge, allowed police and members of the drug task force to search any of the estimated 1,000 people on the church’s 148 acres of land, but Ambrose ruled such warrants were only valid when every person in a place to be searched is likely involved in criminal activity.
In this case, Ambrose held that standard was not met.
Ambrose made the factual finding in the suit the church, its founder William D. “Willie” Pritts and others present for the raid, brought against the county, its drug task force, Assistant District Attorney Mark D. Brooks and task force officers Ryan Reese and the late Autumn Fike.
“Plaintiffs request that this court issue a judgment declaring that plaintiffs have liability for that constitutional violation and that the forfeiture proceeding currently pending in Pennsylvania state court is invalid on the grounds that warrant underlying the forfeiture action was constitutionally invalid,” Koerner wrote.
Following the raid, county officials filed paperwork to force the church, which bases its worship on music, to forfeit its land.
While Ambrose rules on this request, she also has a separate, pending request from county attorney Marie M. Jones, who asked her to clarify the ruling that held the warrant invalid, and refused to dismiss Brooks and Reese as defendants in the suit.
The jurist will rule on the matter at a later date. Both sides are scheduled to participate in a settlement conference on Nov. 8.