ACLU Takes Case of Latinos Arrested at Church

The local ACLU announced Tuesday that it is pressing three new cases involving religious freedoms, including an incident last fall in which two ministers of a Latino church in North County were handcuffed and removed from their Sunday services by sheriff’s deputies responding to a noise complaint.

The other two cases concern the cross atop Mt. Helix and the cross emblazoned on the shoulder patches of the La Mesa police uniform. But it was the intrusion by San Diego County deputies into the Apostolic Church of the Faith of Jesus Christ that drew the most ire from the ACLU officials.

Along with the church leaders being arrested during the service in Fallbrook, the officials said, one deputy flung a Bible in the air and the church flag was knocked over.

“The image of them being arrested and handcuffed is truly one of the most repugnant images we can think of in a country that protects religious freedoms,” said Betty Wheeler, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties.

D. Dwight Worden, the ministers’ attorney who is working with the rights group to defend the preachers against the disturbing-the-peace complaint, added:

“The maximum penalty for this infraction is only a $250 fine, but I can tell you that I’m taking it as one of the most serious cases I’ve ever handled.”

But sheriff’s reports describing the Oct. 15 arrest said that about 20 complaints were filed in a four-month period because of noise from the tiny church, whose services are animated. The church on Kalmia Street is in a residential area, and neighbors were upset because the congregation’s public address system disturbed the neighborhood quiet. The neighbors said they were unable to take naps or hear television.

The deputies’ reports said the church leaders had been warned repeatedly about noise complaints, but, on Sunday afternoon Oct. 15, there was loud “yelling, pounding, clapping, and chanting.”

Deputies Dan Megna and Linda Powell received a signed complaint from Norene Brock, who lives in an apartment complex just south of the church. The officers went inside the church, crowded with about 70 worshipers, including children.

“The congregation was standing with their hands over their head, eyes closed, chanting,” the officers’ reports said. “A minister was standing behind a (lectern) yelling into a P.A. system to the crowd.”

The pastor, Daniel Perez, stood in the deputies’ way and refused to move or cooperate, according to the reports. “He kept saying basically God was in control, not him. At no time did he attempt to quiet the group or offer to turn off the P.A. system,” the reports said.

The pastor was arrested and handcuffed by Megna when “he put his hands out in front of him and said, ‘Go ahead,’ ” the report said. While Perez was taken to the patrol car outside, an assistant pastor, Reynaldo Flores Pizano, was clinging to the lectern as he was being arrested by Powell.

“She said he began to incite the congregation when I arrested Perez,” Megna said in his report. “The crowd was much louder at this point, chanting and yelling. At one point, the congregation became so loud and unruly that I requested additional deputies from Vista.”

Sheriff’s Department investigators impounded the church’s public address system, which they are using as evidence for the March 12 trial in Municipal Court in Vista.

The two ministers, who speak only Spanish, could not be contacted Tuesday. But, in the deputies’ reports, it is clear that Perez and Pizano did not believe they were bothering their neighbors.

“We are just praising the Lord,” Perez was quoted as telling the deputies when they asked him to turn down the P.A. system.

The ACLU’s Wheeler and defense attorney Worden suggested Tuesday that there may be racial overtones in the case because the church has a Latino congregation and the arresting deputies are white.

“My initial reaction is that I’m suspicious of that issue,” Worden said.

However, except for defending the two arrested church leaders, Worden said he has not lodged a formal complaint with the sheriff’s internal affairs unit, nor has he filed a civil claim or lawsuit against the department.

Sgt. Jim Cooke, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said he was unaware of allegations that a Bible was tossed from the lectern into the lap of one of the worshipers or of the flag being knocked over. He also denied any racial motivation in the situation.

“I don’t believe that would be the case,” he said. “This has been an ongoing situation. But I can’t imagine there would be any kind of racial overtones to this.”

In the other cases, the ACLU filed federal lawsuits Tuesday against San Diego County, alleging that county officials violate the doctrine of separation of church and state by maintaining the Christian cross affixed atop Mt. Helix.

The cross, county amphitheater and park atop Mt. Helix were deeded to the county in 1929, and county officials routinely spend taxpayers’ money by keeping them clean of graffiti and other problems, Wheeler said.

“The Latin cross is a religious symbol of Christianity,” she said in the lawsuit. “The permanent display of the cross on Mt. Helix conveys an unmistakable message of government endorsement of the Christian faith.”

However Robert Lerner, a county spokesman, said no government money is used to maintain the cross.

“There’s nothing improper and there’s nothing illegal about having the cross there,” he said. “There isn’t anything to maintain. We maintain the trees and the grounds in the park, but the cross is just there.”

The ACLU filed a second federal lawsuit against the city of La Mesa, saying that it is a constitutional violation for La Mesa police officers to wear shoulder patches depicting a cross.

However, La Mesa police and city officials contend that the emblems are simply symbolic of the Mt. Helix-La Mesa area and carry no religious significance.