Falwell's son caught up in fraud case....ROFL...he was wiretapped

[Oilwellian]

This was all over the local news last night and it appears Falwell Ministries may have bribed the local mayor in return for a vote on rezoning. Jerry Jr. was interviewed and said it feels rather uncomfortable to have someone listening in to your private conversations. :D

(snip)
In the early stages of the investigation, Hutcherson told investigators that Falwell Ministries donated the money to Trinity to help Lynchburg's inner city, but he soon changed his story to say he had solicited $80,000 from Falwell Ministries to pay his tax debt, documents show.

Finally, the motion claims, Hutcherson, who also owns a funeral home, told agents it was Jerry Falwell Jr.'s idea to "funnel the money through Trinity CDC to make a payment on the Funeral Home's debts."

Adding to that the fact that Hutcherson has a vote on the Lynchburg City Council, the government decided to investigate "the possibility that Mayor Hutcherson may have solicited a bribe in exchange for his influence and votes," the motion states.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/58766

[BlooInBloo]

1. There go those crazy "christians" again......

Another front in America's "War on 'christianity' ".

[mzmolly]

5. We cross posted, but DU is apparently on to em.

:hi:

[Oilwellian]

14. Good golly Mzmolly

I didn't see your original post but am sure you don't mind it being reposted. :D :hi:

[mzmolly]

17. Goodness, I was speaking about those of us who said "war on christianity"

I didn't post anything on this story. ;)

Sorry for the confusion.

:hi:

[Oilwellian]

20. Ah, my bad n/t

[mzmolly]

2. Gosh, the "war on Christianity" continues.

:sarcasm: You can bet they will defend any wrong doing with this idiotic line of reasoning.

So Dobson was in Abramoffs pocket and Falwell in the pocket of an Abramoff lite. Huh?

[jsamuel]

3. WAR ON CHRISTIANITY!!!

:sarcasm:

[mzmolly]

7. We think alike. I suggest we phrase this as such the "War on HYPOCRICY."

;)

[Roland99]

28. And thus Jesus spake, "Go forth and pay thy debts with tainted funds."

[underpants]

4. "We can't wait for the jury to hear it."

OLD SCHOOL they must have gotten search warrants and everything.

This is too funny.

[KansDem]

10. It just goes to show that you CAN get results staying within the law!

Are you paying attention, George?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. Hush, he's reading.

How many times will the feds have egg on face before they realize that staying within the rules actually HELPS them? (and us)

Unless, ashcroft and gonzales had instructions to NOT make things work right, giving them a reason to attack judges, pushing out DOJ remnants who believed in law and order, and putting the final nails in the coffin of the constitution.

Whoa, I am getting close to seeing spooks in my closet at this rate. Hi, dude! come on out!.

[swimboy]

13. That's a beautiful bow on that package of irony, huh?

You really couldn't make this shit up.

[WestSeattle2]

6. apple didn't fall far from that tree did it......n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Isn't Kharma wonderful?

[Tanuki]

9. Makes me extra glad

John McCain has agreed to be the graduation speaker at the Liberty College graduation and has been sucking up to Fallwell lately!

[Democrats_win]

11. The Bakers all over again (Tammy Faye and her crooked husband)

Falwall took over their amusement park. I'll never forget the pic of him sliding down the water slide in his suit. Oh yes, this is good news.

[Judi Lynn]

27. So THAT'S what that picture means I've seen around!

One of the oddest photos ever. Learning its background explains it, somewhat (except for the suit!).

Here's the Falwell pride and joy with his father:

[Zenlitened]

12. It's practically a Law of Nature:

Anyone who walks around telling everyone how how wonderfully Moral they are... is almost guaranteed to be a crook, a cheat and a liar.

[liberal N proud]

15. Do you suppose he said "I have nothing to hide" over the NSA wiretaps?

:rofl:

[Ian David]

16. Is this the case the ACLU was helping Falwell win?

ACLU's Defense of Religious Liberty (3/2/2005)

The right of each and every American to practice his or her own religion, or no religion at all, is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The Constitution's framers understood very well that religious liberty can flourish only if the government leaves religion alone.

The American Civil Liberties Union has a long history of working to ensure that religious liberty is protected. From the famous 1920 Scopes trial-in which the ACLU challenged a Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in schools-to the current Ten Commandments case before the Supreme Court, the ACLU remains committed to keeping the government out of the religion business and protecting every American's right to believe as he or she wishes.

Recent ACLU involvement in religious liberty cases include:

<snip>
April 17, 2002: In a victory for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the ACLU of Virginia, a federal judge strikes down a provision of the Virginia Constitution that bans religious organizations from incorporating.
http://www.aclu.org/religion/tencomm/16254res20050302.html



Also:

In Win for Rev. Falwell (and the ACLU), Judge Rules VA Must Allow Churches to Incorporate (4/17/2002)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RICHMOND, VA--A federal judge has struck down a provision of the Virginia Constitution that bans religious organizations from incorporating, in a challenge filed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and joined by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, the group announced today.

"The judge applied well established constitutional principles to reach the conclusion that Virginia's archaic ban on church incorporation cannot pass constitutional muster," said Rebecca Glenberg, Legal Director of the ACLU of Virginia.

The ACLU joined the lawsuit as a "friend of the court" last fall, challenging the ban on the grounds that it violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of free exercise of religion.

Judge Norman K. Moon agreed, and yesterday ordered the State Corporation Commission to grant Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church a corporate charter.

Virginia is the only state in the nation that bans incorporation by religious institutions (other than West Virginia, which was still part of Virginia at the time the provisions were adopted). Virginia churches are governed by trustees appointed by Circuit Court judges. Virginia does not prohibit incorporation by charitable non-profit organizations that are not religious in nature.

Virginia law also places restrictions on the amount of land a church may own. Falwell has challenged these provisions in court as well, and the ACLU hopes to be able to argue in court that Virginia's land restrictions are also unconstitutional.

"Virginia's 18th-century lawmakers had good intentions when they decided not to allow churches to incorporate," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. "At that time only the General Assembly had the power to grant corporate status, and the framers of the Constitution did not want a political body deciding which religious institutions would be allowed to incorporate and which ones would not. That would hardly be a good start for the still novel idea of religious freedom."

"But that was long before the modern concept of incorporation, which is an administrative rather than political process," added Willis. "The old law, placed in the modern context, discriminates against religious institutions by denying them the same opportunity to incorporate as other similar institutions."

More:
http://www.aclu.org/religion/frb/16040prs20020417.html

(Per DU rules, press releases can be posted in entirety).

[mzmolly]

18. Gee I thougth the ACLU hated "believers?"

:sarcasm:

[annabanana]

19. Oh this is just too, too delicious..

Wiretap away guys... I have nothing to hide...

[Ian David]

21. Here's another article on the Falwell Crime Family...

Falwell Helps Car Dealers Escape Merchandise Tax
Church & State, Feb 2004

Virginia car dealers trying to escape a tax on inventory have found a new friend willing to help them for a price: the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Amherst County, Va., has a law requiring business owners to pay a tax on all inventory held on site on Jan. 1. For car dealers, who keep large numbers of expensive vehicles, the tax can easily amount to tens of thousands of dollars.

Eager to duck the fees, some dealers arranged to temporarily rent space in an empty parking lot at FaI well's Liberty University in Lynchburg. The school is inside the city limits, making it beyond the reach of Amherst County tax agents.

Ronald Godwin, president of Jerry Falwell Ministries, refused to tell the Lynchburg News & Advance how much the dealers paid Falwell but added, "There will be some remuneration to Liberty University. We have a lot of empty parking lots, and these guys wanted to use them."

More:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200402/ai_n9369035

[Ian David]

22. Someone should make sure this stuff gets added to their Wikipedia articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell

[AndyA]

23. Gee, karma sure is a bitch, ain't it?

The Lord said vengeance is mine...

[Neil Lisst]

24. Praise the Lord!!

[rucky]

26. This has Keith Obermann written all over it! n/t

[rucky]

29. Here's some transcript:

that Little Jerry is one slick dude!

&oasDN=wsls.com&oasPN=%21news%21localnews

Here is one exchange between Hutcherson and Falwell Jr. from the transcript, which was posted on the federal court’s Web site Tuesday along with a motion to introduce it as evidence.

Hutcherson: I didn’t answer, I didn’t answer a lot after that because uh, ultimately what they did was issue me a subpoena.

Falwell: Is that right?

Hutcherson: I just didn’t know what to say or do.

Falwell: Alright, well we, it was a donation to that New Life, that’s who we made the check out to, right?

Hutcherson: Yes, uh huh.

Falwell: So what’s, I don’t understand what’s wrong with that.

Hutcherson: I don’t, I don’t know.

Over the course of the conversation, Falwell repeatedly says the money was given as a donation to the CDC, not a personal loan.

“They’re just uh, but I just uh, I can’t think, Carl, what it would be that uh, would be so bad,” Falwell said. “Even if we had just loaned the funeral home.”

Falwell also refers to the Ericsson rezoning on the north campus of LU from the year before that initially drew the attention of federal investigators.

From the transcript:

“But at the time you voted on that rezoning for us, it was nothing, no business relationship at all,” Falwell said.

“That’s, no, no. There wasn’t. No,” Hutcherson said.

Falwell also said during the conversation “they’re just trying to scare you.”

Falwell said Tuesday that the Bank of the James, the institution where the donation was deposited, was responsible for the entire investigation beginning.

In the transcript, Falwell tells Hutcherson, “… Now, it’s probably Bank of the James that’s brought that up.”

Hutcherson says “Probably so.”

Falwell says, “Oh, yeah. I don’t trust those people.”

[jody]

30. What's the problem, Falwell and friends were just preying together? n/t

[bmbmd]

31. Money changers in the temple.

The only time the Lord Jesus got really angry, he drove 'em out with a whip of ropes...

[frankly_fedup2]

32. Oh my goodness. This has made my MONTH, YEAR,, DECADE!!

I love it. I did a search and there were a lot of things regarding Falwell and zoning with some dating back to 2000.

They just finished their new HUGH sanctuary, more dorm buildings, a hockey rink that the "Left Behin'

The best part of all . . . the wiretapping. I guess Falwell now knows how it feels when it happens to you or a loved one. I love Karma. I have never doubted it and it ALWAYS proves its point. If there is cause then there ise effect. Quantum physics.

I record "The Old Time Gospel Hour." it and keep up with Falwell's constant insults to the "Godless" Liberals" and our "drive-by media: They are trying to make it sound like the media would do anything to cause news, especially bad, against the right.

Now their new campaign has changed from the Christmas haters to the Christian haters. The first one was made up to give them something to b**** about, and now they think this new one will work. It's really sadly laughable if you stop and think about how desperate they are to make up something to get some news about themselves.

I bet Falwell would pay anything for this one to go away though . . . well, he may do just that. I'm sure he will be discussing it during his sermon this week.

One thing though, I thought this wiretapping thing without a warrant was for suspected terrorist and their possible connections. Of course, the article didn't say anything about not getting a warrant and going through the appropriate channels.

Thanks again (happy dancing)

[nolabels]

33. There is a difference here

Elements of the Fallwell group were already under investigation for criminal intent. I am also willing to bet there was a warrant for the wire tap. I am for law enforcement enforcing the law as much as I am against them trampling on anybodies civil liberties. Break the law with criminal neglect or comtempt and pay the consequences