The Record-Courier reports Justin Lew Harris of Gardnerville carried his 56-year-old mother out of the church Monday as she loudly objected to the ceremony.
All, OK, so far. Generally speaking, you can use force to remove trespassers, right?
Harris, 35, faces disorderly conduct and coercion charges. He was released from the Douglas County Jail on his own recognizance Wednesday.
Because these charges are related to a domestic violence incident, if he’s convicted, he’ll be prohibited under the Lautenberg Amendment. Clearly by carrying mom out of the church, he’s a dangerous wife beater deserving of losing a fundamental constitutional right. At least that’s what our opponents think.
The disorderly conduct charge ordinarily would be very minor, and I think even in this situation would not be disabling in regards to Lautenberg. But the coercion charge involves an element of physical force, which qualifies, and we’re talking about his mother, which makes it domestic. Our dishonest and unsavory opponents want you think about wife beaters, but the domestic violence ban just as surely covers this conduct as it does someone who slaps his wife.
And why this guy is facing charges at all is a whole different discussion that really speaks to state overreach.
There’s got to be a back story we haven’t heard to explain charges.
I thought about that, too. I went in search of the original paper to see what they said. From the sounds of it, the mother is batshit crazy. She claims he dragged her by the collar while she was screaming in pain because she can barely walk with a cane. He denies it, his bride to be denies it, AND the pastor denies it. They all reported the same thing – that she came in church screaming about them not getting married, and he picked her up and put her back in her car when she wouldn’t calm down.
And, from the original article, the charges are much worse and bail was set at $28,000. That’s just insane. When you have three witnesses against one who is clearly beyond reasonable in her response (not even the pastor could calm her down), that’s not a basis for charging the guy with anything.
Excessive bail much? I see he was eventually Released on Recognizance at the AP article, so someone’s sanity prevailed. I hope his lawyer will tell him that pleading out will make him a prohibited person.
Personally I think the domestic charges should not have anything to do with your rights to own/carry a gun except in cases of severe beatings, death threats or threatening with a gun. You know, serious stuff, not a few shoves or slaps during an argument.
If my wife wanted to be an Ahole I could probably be banned too. I hit her once, in the arm, after she punched me in the stomach, and she ain’t no weakling either! And to this day she still hasn’t told me why she hit me.
I figure if a woman wants to act like a man they should be treated like a man. And if some guy punches me for no good reason I’m damn sure gonna hit him back! Wouldn’t you?
Clear first amendment violation. Kicking somebody out of your church is common law legal, going back about 2000 years. The state has no business charging someone with coercion for removing somebody from a religious ceremony on church property.