Music church suit settled
The legal dispute between Fayette County and the Church of Universal Love and Music appears to be at an end.
An out-of-court settlement was reached in late January between the county and the former Bullskin Township church, noted for its outdoor music concerts.
The county had won a case in federal court in July 2014 when a jury ruled that the rights of the church’s founder, William Pritts, as well as some of the members of the church, were not violated during an August 2009 raid by the Fayette County Drug Task Force.
Pritts and the others filed notice of intent to appeal with the 3rd Circuit Court in August 2014.
The most recent settlement agreement calls for the dismissal of the appeal. It also calls for the county to halt the forfeiture of the church’s Bullskin Township property to the drug task force. That forfeiture proceeding was started after the 2009 raid. In exchange, the church is to give the county’s insurance carrier $75,000 upon the sale of the real estate.
According to Mary Milie Jones, the attorney for the county, the property sold shortly after the agreement was reached and Pritts sent her a check for $75,000 to be forwarded to the Pennsylvania Counties Risk Pool. The insurance company has incurred more than $220,900 in expenses handling the case.
Fayette County’s cost for the case is limited to the $10,000 deductible, according to John Sallade, the managing director of insurance programs for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
Sallade said the settlement money will help Fayette County in the long run.
“We get that back first because we put the money out. It does benefit them (Fayette County) because it reduces their claim exposure,” Sallade said.
Jones said reaching a settlement in the case with the appellant actually paying money is very unusual.
“The county was successful in that lawsuit. Willie Pritts was seeking an appeal. Usually that means he’s seeking money, not giving up money,” Jones said.
The church had sued the county in the past, saying the county had violated its religious rights and other laws by preventing the church from holding religious events involving live, amplified music. That case was settled in March 2009 with the county agreeing to pay the church $75,000 and the church agreeing to limit its activities to six weekend and six Saturday events a year.
The August 2009 raid resulted in 22 drug arrests, and brought an end to the agreement reached in that case. There were approximately 1,000 people at the event. Drug task force members testified that two previous concerts that summer had been “an open air drug market.”