‘LAWLESS BEHAVIOR’: Charges Dropped Against Woman Who Allegedly Disrupted Easter Service at Cities Church
Tyler O'Neil /
Anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters have continued to target an evangelical Christian church in St. Paul, Minnesota, after agitators invaded the church on Jan. 18, and police arrested a protester on Easter Sunday.
While the Justice Department has charged 38 people in the Jan. 18 invasion, the church’s attorney claims that state and local authorities should also have pressed charges, saying this would have deterred “continued lawless behavior.”
“It has been nearly three months since a mob of agitators stormed Cities Church, intimidated families and children, and disrupted the peaceful worship of Jesus Christ. That is more than enough time for the city attorney to bring charges,” Doug Wardlow, the director of litigation at True North Legal who represents the church, told The Daily Signal in a statement Tuesday.
“Under Minnesota law, it is a crime to block people from entering or exiting a religious establishment or to interfere with religious worship by means of threats or violence,” Wardlow added, citing Section 609.28 of the Minnesota State Statutes.
“The continued lawless behavior of agitators outside of Cities Church is a direct result of the failure of state and local officials to enforce the law.”
City Attorney Irene Kao did not respond to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment.
The Easter Disruption at Cities Church
On Easter Sunday, about a dozen protesters stood outside the church for roughly four hours, playing loud music and shouting at worshippers as they entered and exited the church. Protesters say they targeted the church because one of the church’s pastors worked for ICE.
Jonathan Parnell, the church’s senior pastor, said the protesters “held signs with obscenities and yelled harassing comments at families and individual worshippers.”
“After the St. Paul Police Department issued several warnings related to the noise, they arrested one individual,” he added.
“While similar protests have continued in recent weeks, the people of Cities Church have sought to respond with patience and kindness,” Parnell said.
St. Paul Police said in a statement Sunday that the protesters’ loud noises were “disrupting the church services.”
While most of the protesters “complied” with orders to stop, police said, “One person, an adult female, did not comply and was arrested by officers for interference with religious observance, and St. Paul City Ordinances 293.02 and 293.07.”
Emily Phillips, 33, faced charges for misdemeanor disorderly conduct, misdemeanor interference with religious observance, and two noise violations, according to the police incident report.
On Monday, a judge dismissed the charges, but police told The Daily Signal they intend to resubmit the charges to the city attorney, who may reinstate them. Police said the case was dismissed “because of a procedural error that was made where the ‘probable cause’ notes were not included on the citation.”
Parnell said he was “disheartened” to hear the charges were dropped and called on officials to enforce the law.
‘Retaliatory’ Charges?
James Cook, an attorney at Burris, Nisenbaum, Curry & Lacy who represents Phillips, told The Daily Signal that the protesters “were trying to follow the police officer’s orders” and “doing their best not to interfere with the actual service.”
He drew a distinction between the kind of protest in which his client engaged and the Jan. 18 invasion.
“If the police file charges again, I think it would be retaliatory,” Cook said. He noted that authorities haven’t contacted his team to notify them about any charges.
“I don’t take police reports to be at face value, meaning I don’t take them to be the truth,” he added. “I would challenge it.”
As for Wardlow’s claim that the protests outside Cities Church would not have continued had local authorities pressed charges for the Jan. 18 incident, Cook said, “There’s no way anybody can predict that.”
He noted that Minneapolis’ culture is “very liberal” and people “protest a lot.”
Cook also suggested that local authorities may not have pressed charges because “when the federal government gets involved, the state tends to take a back seat.”
Outrage Over Charges
The national response to federal charges in the Jan. 18 invasion might bolster Wardlow’s suggestion that local charges might have deterred future protests.
Many Democrats condemned the charges against Don Lemon, a former CNN host who took part in the church invasion and claimed to have been covering it as a journalist. Democrats said the Trump administration charged Lemon in retaliation for unfavorable coverage. Local charges would not receive the same sort of condemnation.
A federal grand jury indicted 39 people, including Lemon, on two charges: violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which also protects access to churches; and violating the Ku Klux Klan Act, which criminalizes efforts to deprive Americans of their fundamental rights—in this case, the right to the free exercise of religion. (A judge dismissed the charges against one defendant due to mistaken identity.)
According to the indictment, agitators refused to leave when asked and shouted, “Who shut this down? We shut this down!” Agitators also allegedly screamed at crying children and blocked parents from getting to their children in Sunday School. The indictment claims Lemon strategized with leaders before the invasion and hid the target location on his livestream before the invasion.
The federal indictment does not preclude the city attorney from pressing local charges.