Phelps Liable In Marines Funeral Protest

Kansas church liable in Marine funeral protest
BALTIMORE (Reuters)
A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $10.9 million in damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral.
Church members said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s death was God’s punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality, and they attended his 2006 funeral in Maryland with signs saying “You’re going to hell” and “God hates you.”
The federal jury determined the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, and three of its principals invaded the privacy of the dead man’s family and inflicted emotional distress.
Albert Snyder, the Marine’s father, testified that his son was not gay, but the church targeted the military as a symbol of America’s tolerance of gays. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq in March 2006.
The jury awarded Snyder’s family $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages in the first civil suit against the church, which has demonstrated at some 300 military funerals the past two years.
The lawsuit said church Web sites vilified U.S. soldiers, accusing them of being indoctrinated by “fag propaganda.”

“I hope it’s enough to deter them from doing this to other families. It was not about the money. It was about getting them to stop,” said Snyder, of York, Pennsylvania.

The church, which is unaffiliated with any major denomination, is headed by Rev. Fred Phelps, who has led a campaign against homosexuality for years. Most of the estimated 70 members of the church belong to his extended family.

“It will take the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals a few minutes to reverse this silly thing,” Phelps said.

His daughter and co-defendant, Shirley Phelps-Roper, vowed to continue protesting military funerals and called the court’s decision a blow against free speech.
Outside court on Wednesday, Phelps and his children waved placards with slogans such as “Pray for more dead kids” and “God hates fag enablers,” while passing drivers and pedestrians shouted abuse at them.
Defense attorney Jonathan Katz urged jurors not to award punitive damages because the $2.9 million in compensatory damages was already three times the defendants’ net worth.

“It’s enough already to bankrupt them and financially destroy them,” Katz said.

Craig Trebilcock, an attorney for Snyder, said jurors should award sufficient punitive damages to deter Westboro from repeating its actions.
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Reaction of Fred Phelps on CNN over the Snyder verdict

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Wild Thing’s comment……..
This is from one of the Patriot Guards :

“Being in the Patriot Guard, I have personally witnessed this so-called “distance” where they don’t disrupt things. One funeral was for SGT Fuga in Independence, MO. The Westboro Baptist Church was placed 300 feet from the services. But that placed them around the parking lot of where the family parked, easily an ear shout distance from the family. Shirley Phelps and the gang sing SO loudly (things like God Hates America or the Marine Corps song with the lyrics that “Marine Corps fags coming home in body bags”) that you can hear them for blocks.
When this does start to occur at the funerals, the Patriot Guard will place their motorcycles in front of them to drown out their voices. If they were so far away and not disruptive, I guarantee you that the Patriot Guard would NEVER get to close to them. We’d rather keep our distance.
At the funeral for Kevin Ziegler in Kansas City, they were on the busy intersection where the family would pass to get to the funeral. As the family passed, they yelled out to the family that Kevin was in hell. I heard that, and I was at least 150 feet away at the time.”