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DA: Scientology critic no criminal harasser
By adamg on Wed, 10/22/2008 - 3:58pm
The Suffolk County DA's office today dropped a charge of criminal harassment against Gregg Housh, 32, of Woburn, related to protests outside the Church of Scientology's Boston headquarters.
However, a Boston Municipal Court judge continued for one year charges against Housh of disturbing an assembly of worship and disturbing the peace. The ruling means Housh has to stay away from the church's current headquarters and its planned new offices in the South End or the case could be brought to trial, according to the Suffolk County DA's office. In a statement, the office explained the decision to drop the criminal-harassment charge:
After a review of the evidence, prosecutors determined they could not meet their burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on this charge [of criminal harassment] and could not in good faith move forward with it.
Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors would have introduced evidence and testimony to show that Housh and others entered the Church of Scientology's Beacon Street building in a boisterous manner during a March 1 protest, disturbing the proceedings and alarming those inside.
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Comments
Housh and others entered the
Since they entered the church and were disruptive, I agree with the disposition. If they had stood on the sidewalk out front, been peaceful and not obstructed passage, then I would be pissed about the disposition. Everyone is entitled to the same rights under the law, even Scientologists, holocaust deniers, and neo-nazis and neocons.
Whoa
Anonymous comments on Anonymous. Film at 11!
It took me a moment, that
It took me a moment, that anonymous and I are not one in the same.
No, he didn't.
Some of the group did. He did not. The ONLY reason he was brought up on charges was because he filed his name with the city in order to reserve public space on the Common for a gathering of Anonymous. This is a public filing and Scientology's lawyers used it to finally get a name of someone in Anonymous here in Boston. They then turned their full attention to him because he is the only person they had any information to go on.
I wasn't there.
I wasn't there. I took my cue the from Suffolk County DA's statement. Can you find the source that says differently?
Yes, you were
That was the whole point of the protest.
Heh, that joke won't get old any time soon.
Here's the original thread here at UHub.
not criminal but harasser
obvious harassment is obvious
There is no 'assembly of worship' in a Scientology building
They did not disrupt religious services, because there are no religious services there to disrupt. Also, Housh didn't go into the building, though some of his friends did.
cover story in last week's Boston Phoenix
was all about Gregg Housh, Anonymous, and Scientology. Read it here: Battling Scientology
Thanks Ron.
Thanks Ron.
The entire statement from the DA's office
Here.
"stays away from"
is pretty vague. I hope the court order is more specific (e.g. stay N feet away from)
How far?
Given how nonsensical this whole thing is, I hope they give him the distance in smoots.
Housh got owned by Scientology
The Massachusetts Lawyer blog reports today that "On Oct. 22, Judge Thomas C. Horgan imposed a one-year CWOF (Continuance Without a Finding) against Gregg Housh, who had been charged with disturbing an assembly of worship and disturbing the peace. As part of the plea, Housh was ordered to stay away from the Back Bay headquarters of the Church of Scientology and its new headquarters in Boston’s South End."
Gregg was presented just recently in The Phoenix as "an Internet activist and provocateur, is not an easy guy to characterize. A member of a group that calls itself “Anonymous,” Housh is pitted in what appears to be an escalating rift with the CoS." Looks like he lost it.
I wonder what made him admitting enough facts to warrant a finding of guilt on charges. Probably the fact that he faces jail if he doesn't?
Read the blog post
Here. It begins:
That or he's dead broke
They couldn't find him guilty if they wanted to.
But if you read the Phoenix article, you'd also have read the following:
You can't easily keep showing up with counsel at pre-trial bullshit for free. Scientology's "drain your coffers" approach is legend. They applied it here when they found out that Housh was basically just an internet dork living paycheck-to-paycheck. The two charges he continued without finding were piled on in *September* even though the event they're complaining about was in March and other charges have been since dropped. They were telling him that they were going to extend this until he was bankrupt or accepted something. He accepted "don't come near them for a year". He'll still continue online to organize, I'm sure, and it sounds like he's still organizing on location before the group actually goes to the sidewalk by the church in protest. He won't have to declare himself guilty of any crime which protects his employment, etc. His lawyer probably convinced him that this was the best possible outcome given the fact that Scientology wasn't going to let go since it has very little grasp on any other Anonymous members in the city.
That's insane
So a criminal business can fraudulently call itself a church and thus claim that anyone who enters their business office for any reason is some how "disturbing worship."
How insane.
The Scientology crime syndicate does not have "worship." The syndicate's ringleraders and crime bosses don't have "church services." The notion that Scientology is anything but a corporate business has routinely been laid to rest in endless series of newspaper, magazine, television, radio, and other venue shows, exposes, documentaries, and investigative infiltration of the syndicate.
The only reason the syndicate on rare occasion gets away with making such claims is because politically some DA's offices are driven to platicate the crime syndicate.
The truht about Scientology, what it is and what it does, is available all over the Internet.
My opinions only and only my opinions, as always.