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Men jailed for being
on public sidewalk 
Gideons arrested after school officials
complain they were handing out Bibles

Two men who are members of Gideons International, the Christian organization that is famous for, among other ministries, placing Bibles in motels and giving them to children, have been arrested after trying to hand out Bibles on a public sidewalk in Florida, according to a law firm.

Officials with the Alliance Defense Fund have confirmed they will be representing Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson, who were arrested, booked into jail and charged with trespassing.

Jeremy Tedesco, one of the ADF's lawyers on the case, confirmed that the organization's clients were on a public sidewalk when they were handing out Bibles and school officials summoned police.

"The First Amendment protects the right to engage in religious speech on a public sidewalk," ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman said. "Members of the Gideons have been highly respected for decades as peaceful providers of free Bibles to those who want them."

The arrest happened Jan. 19, when Mirto and Simpson were on the sidewalk outside of Key Largo School in Key Largo, Fla., and were distributing copies of the Bible to those interested.

"Neither man entered school grounds," the law firm said. "After the school's principal called police, a Monroe County sheriff's officer asked the men to leave immediately or face trespassing charges. As the men prepared to leave, the officer decided to arrest both individuals."

A hearing is scheduled March 5 in Monroe County Court in the cases, and ADF attorneys are preparing motions to dismiss the charges.

"Officials cannot use fear of arrest as a means of bullying law-abiding Christians into silence," Cortman said. "These men broke no laws when they decided to communicate their message on a public sidewalk."

Tedesco noted that sometimes school officials have a misconception about whether they can control activities on school grounds and adjacent public sidewalks. But the First Amendment does provide a protection for speech on those parcels of ground that are public, he said.

"There's no reason why they should be put in jail," he said.

The ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the truth, through strategy, training, funding and litigation.

The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."

Members of the Gideons, who pay their own expenses so 100 percent of the donations to the group go toward Bible purchases and distributions, have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.

The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.

"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done – if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more than 1 million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days in these areas…" the group said.

The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800. Information about the products is available on the group's website.

The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States.

What is going on in this world?  We have little 'ol Grandmas, men on a public sidewalks, and others just trying to tell others about the LOVE of JESUS ...peacefully ..... no one was cutting off heads or bombing... and they get arrested? And all this is happening HERE in the USA!!!

I am sure that there are many more such incidents that are not making it into the media and many more such things will be happening.

Here in Florida they should be more concerned about thieves breaking into police cars and stealing their automatic guns and other weapons than worrying about little old ladies passing out the Word of God. The crime rate in Florida has risen astronomically, people should be thankful for those citizens who still have a fear of God and want to share His Word with others.

The crime rate nation wide is going up every day. I am sure that we will see more of it also as long as God is kept from the people.

Gideons battling 2nd round of charges 
'Why does Florida prosecute people who hand out Bibles?'

Two members of Gideons International who were arrested in Florida for handing out Bibles on a public sidewalk are battling a second round of charges, after the initial trespassing charges against them were dismissed, but authorities filed a new set.

"Why is Florida so interested in prosecuting people who hand out Bibles?" asked the Alliance Defense Fund, which is working on the case for the two volunteers. "Does the state now believe that its citizens will be safer if 'protected' from Bibles? In a country founded on religious freedom, the actions of the State are a disgrace."

Officials with the law firm have confirmed that they now have filed a new motion to dismiss the new charges facing the Gideons for their work in Key Largo.

As WND reported earlier, Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson of Monroe County were arrested, charged with trespassing, and booked into jail after the school principal called police while the two men were distributing copies of the Bible on a public sidewalk earlier this year.

They were verbally assaulted and badgered by the arresting officer, according to court filings in the case, and sustained injury to their wrists when he handcuffed them with their hands behind their backs and detained them in a closed, un-air conditioned car for nearly an hour in 90-degree heat.

"Following the initial motion to dismiss filed by ADF attorneys, the state dismissed the charges but then filed new ones under a different statute," the ADF said.

"The distribution of Bibles on a public sidewalk is not a criminal offense," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. "The attempts by Florida officials to continue pressing for the prosecution of Mr. Mirto and Mr. Simpson is not only blatantly unconstitutional, it borders on religious persecution."

The incident developed Jan. 19, when the two men were distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk outside Key Largo School but did not step onto school grounds, the ADF said. Both men were arrested, booked, and charged with trespassing after the school's principal called police. On March 8, ADF attorneys filed a motion to dismiss and the state did dismiss those counts.

However, it filed new charges under a different law that prohibits anyone from being within 500 feet of any school property, including on public sidewalks and streets, without having either "legitimate business" or permission, the ADF said.

"The facts are clear: Mr. Mirto and Mr. Simpson are guilty of nothing more than peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights," Cortman said. "For whatever reason, the state is grasping at straws in order to justify the punishment of these men."

The state of Florida is now in the "untenable position of trying to justify the punishment of fundamental First Amendment activities in a quintessential traditional public forum," the law firm said. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents over the last century, that is a "blatant violation of their constitutional rights."

On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law, unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn't apply to the two members of Gideons International, then that creates a content-based speech restriction, which also isn't proper, Cortman said.

In fact, if anyone may have stepped beyond the law, the filing suggests, it was the arresting officer from the Monroe County sheriff's office.

"There was no call for Officer [John] Perez's angry demeanor, his inappropriate handling of the situation, his abusive treatment of the Gideons, his stopping and arresting them while they were in the process of leaving, his unnecessary towing of the car (parked where many other cars were parked), his handcuffing the men behind their backs, his leaving them cramped in a hot car for nearly an hour (which should never be done to animals, never mind to human beings), nor his mocking the Gideons' religious beliefs stating 'now you can pray to Jesus all the way to jail,'" the ADF said.

The new motion seeks to dismiss the new counts in "State of Florida v. Simpson" and "State of Florida v. Mirto."

In a statement at the outset of the case to WND, Becky Herrin, of the public information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a fact that the defendants in the case did trespass. She later declined additional comment.

"A copy of our police report (see attached) … clearly states that the people in question were arrested for trespassing on school property – not on a public sidewalk… In fact, they were given the opportunity to step off school property and onto public property, and they could have continued with their activities if they had done so. They chose instead to remain, against repeated warnings, on school property so deputies were forced to arrest them," Herrin said in a statement to WND.

But the report forwarded to WND revealed the two were arrested while in their vehicle parked near, but not on, school property.

The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."

Members of the Gideons, who pay their own expenses so 100 percent of the donations to the group go toward Bible purchases and distributions, have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.

The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.

"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done – if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more than 1 million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days in these areas…" the group said.

The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800. Information about the products is available on the group's website.

The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States.

It is as if the World is all backwards.  Very innocent and harmless people are being prosecuted and the VERY mean, nasty and hateful people are set free.

How true, sister.  I wouldn't be surprised if a 'legitimate' crime was being committed elsewhere while the police were arresting the Gideons.  This is a textbook case of a 'travesty' of justice.

Another Gideon sues for First Amendment rights in Florida

A civil rights lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a Gideons International member who was among several who were threatened with arrest for handing out Bibles at a Florida school in January. Thomas Gray watched fellow Gideons Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson be arrested and taken away from Key Largo School January 19 for distributing the Bibles on public property.



Attorney Mike Johnson, counsel for one of plaintiffs, says Gray was then threatened with arrest by an officer who said none of the group could be allowed within 500 feet of the school's property. Johnson says the civil suit was filed on Thomas Gray's behalf in order "to protect the right of Americans to share their faith in public."

Gray's treatment by law enforcement officials during this incident was "unconscionable" and "unlawful," the attorney contends. He says the Gideons International member "was threatened with arrest for merely distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk," and the local sheriff's deputies "actually told him that he had no right to be within 500 feet of a public school's property, even though he was on a public sidewalk and had informed the sheriff and the school ahead of time that they would be out there distributing these Bibles to passers-by."

Free speech exists in America "even within 500 feet of public school property," Johnson insists. "And, under the First Amendment, these gentlemen certainly have the right to do exactly what they were doing," he says.

Gray has not appeared again at the public walkway just outside of school grounds since then, for fear of what happened to his fellow Gideons. Simpson and Mirto are currently litigating charges in a criminal case based on the supposed 500-foot prohibition.

Florida ministry sues police for violating constitutional rights of Christians

A Florida police department is being taken to court after several officers have been accused of violating the constitutional rights of a group of Christians who were collecting petitions for a ballot measure protecting traditional marriage.



The Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) has filed a federal lawsuit against the Sunrise Police Department, accusing officers in the department of violating the rights of Council staffers and volunteers as they collected the petitions outside an arena during a Promise Keeper's rally last summer. Witnesses say several officers from the Department arrived and told the group they could not collect the petitions.

The officers are accused of lecturing the staffers and volunteers on Christ's view of homosexuality and the biblical admonition to obey authorities. The officers eventually backed down and allowed the petitions to be displayed, but only after arena officials intervened and said the FFPC workers were within their rights.

John Stemberger, president of the FFPC, says police officers cannot be allowed to violate the constitutional rights of citizens.

"This is a pattern in south Florida," he explains, pointing to a case in which police officers shut down the Bible distribution activities of Gideons International. "We have great respect for law enforcement; these are men and women who lay their lives down for us every day," Stemberger continues. "But we are not going to allow a couple of bad cops to discriminate against us based upon the disagreement with our message."

Stemberger, who is an attorney, maintains that First Amendment rights are at stake in the FFPC matter.

"We do need to be humble; we do need to have a right spirit," he points out, "but we cannot allow others to just trod over our rights, because this is all about the gospel. This is our ability to basically communicate Truth into a lost and dying world; and if we lose that right, we're in a situation just like China where we have an underground church."

Stemberger says the petition effort continues to move forward. He says about 21,000 more petitions are needed to reach the required 611,000 to put the marriage measure on next year's ballot in Florida.

Federal judge asked to allow Gideons scripture distribution

An attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund says a policy in one Florida city that bans the distribution of Christian literature makes believers out to be second-class citizens. Now a federal judge has now been asked to review and strike the policy that was used earlier this year to intimidate Christians who were handing out Bibles near a public school.



In January, Thomas Gray, a member of Gideons International, was threatened with arrest if he did not stop distributing Bibles within 500 feet of Key Largo School. Gray was told that he had "no right" to be there. Gray, as well as other Gideons, were on a public sidewalk and had notified authorities of the plans. Prior to the distribution, both school officials and the Monroe County Sheriff's Office had said the activity was permissible.

But during the distribution, Gray learned that two of his fellow Gideons had been arrested. After being threatened himself with arrest, Gray contacted the Alliance Defense Fund -- and as spokesman Jeremy Tedesco says, a federal judge has been asked to review the case. Tedesco says the ruling could have a big impact.

"The First Amendment knows no second-class citizen," Tedesco notes. "And more importantly, it protects the right of anybody to use the public sidewalk, to be present on a public sidewalk and to be engaged in speech. And the state certainly can't get away with telling religious people they can't be there, but permitting others to be there."

ADF attorneys have asked for the statute, which could ultimately affect every public school in the Sunshine State, to be struck down.

"You're talking probably thousands of schools," exclaims Tedesco. "They are literally speech-free zones around each one of those schools [under this statute]. All day, every day, people -- including the Gideons -- could be hauled off to jail and prosecuted for engaging in protected First Amendment expression. So this statute needs to be stricken as a violation of the First Amendment."

A decision on the preliminary injunction request could come later this year. The case is Gray v. Kohl.

Men giving away Bibles cleared of charges 
2 Gideons cited while on public property near Florida school

A Florida judge has dismissed all counts against two members of The Gideons International who were arrested while handing out Bibles on a public sidewalk outside a school, officials with the Alliance Defense Fund said.

"Christians cannot be treated as second-class citizens," said ADF senior legal counsel David Cortman. "These two men have the same constitutional rights as everyone else to pass out literature on a public sidewalk.

"We are pleased that the court agrees that these men should not have been arrested and dismissed the charges against them," he said.

The case has been handled by the legal alliance, which defends the right to hear and speak the truth through strategy, training, funding and litigation, since shortly after Ernest Simpson and Anthony Mirto were arrested.

They had been charged with trespassing after the principal complained that they were handing out Bibles.

The initial counts were dismissed at the request of the ADF shortly after the law firm got involved, but then authorities filed a second round of counts, under a different law that prohibits anyone from being within 500 feet of any school property, including on public sidewalks and streets, without having either "legitimate business" or permission.

"Why is Florida so interested in prosecuting people who hand out Bibles?" the ADF had wondered at the time. "Does the state now believe that its citizens will be safer if 'protected' from Bibles? In a country founded on religious freedom, the actions of the State are a disgrace."

As WND originally reported, Mirto and Simpson of Monroe County were arrested, charged with trespassing, and booked into jail after the school principal, Annette Martinson, called police.

They were verbally assaulted and badgered by the arresting officer, according to court filings in the case, and sustained injury to their wrists when he handcuffed them with their hands behind their backs and detained them in a closed, un-air conditioned car for nearly an hour in 90-degree heat.

"The distribution of Bibles on a public sidewalk is not a criminal offense," Cortman said then. "The attempts by Florida officials to continue pressing for the prosecution of Mr. Mirto and Mr. Simpson is not only blatantly unconstitutional, it borders on religious persecution."

The incident Jan. 19 developed as the two men were distributing Bibles outside Key Largo School.

While the original trespassing counts were unreasonable, the second round put the state of Florida in the "untenable position of trying to justify the punishment of fundamental First Amendment activities in a quintessential traditional public forum," the ADF described.

On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law, unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn't apply to the two members of Gideons International, then that creates a content-based speech restriction, which also isn't proper, Cortman said.

In fact, if anyone may have stepped beyond the law, the filing suggests, it was the arresting officer from the Monroe County sheriff's office.

"There was no call for Officer [John] Perez's angry demeanor, his inappropriate handling of the situation, his abusive treatment of the Gideons, his stopping and arresting them while they were in the process of leaving, his unnecessary towing of the car (parked where many other cars were parked), his handcuffing the men behind their backs, his leaving them cramped in a hot car for nearly an hour (which should never be done to animals, never mind to human beings), nor his mocking the Gideons' religious beliefs stating 'now you can pray to Jesus all the way to jail,'" the ADF said.

In a statement at the outset of the case to WND, Becky Herrin, of the public information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a fact that the defendants in the case did trespass. She later declined additional comment.

"A copy of our police report (see attached) … clearly states that the people in question were arrested for trespassing on school property – not on a public sidewalk… In fact, they were given the opportunity to step off school property and onto public property, and they could have continued with their activities if they had done so. They chose instead to remain, against repeated warnings, on school property so deputies were forced to arrest them," Herrin said in a statement to WND.

But the report forwarded to WND revealed the two were arrested while in their vehicle parked near, but not on, school property.

The Gideons, a group founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."

Members of the Gideons, who pay their own expenses so 100 percent of the donations to the group go toward Bible purchases and distributions, have placed the Bible in 181 nations in 82 different languages over the years.

The organization focuses on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.

"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that we are able to purchase through our donations. Much more could be done – if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more than 1 million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days in these areas…" the group said.

The organization only gives away the Bibles with the Gideon logo on the covers, but plain Bibles are available for consumers to purchase at its distribution center at P.O. Box 140800, Nashville, Tenn., 37214-0800. Information about the products is available on the group's website.

The Gideons serve as an extended missionary arm of the Christian church and are the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the United States.

Florida judge dismisses charges against Gideons

Charges have been dropped against two individuals after they were accused of trespassing on a sidewalk outside of a Florida public school. The two men had been handing out Bibles.



On January 19, police arrested Ernest Simpson and Anthony Mirto for trespassing after the principal of Key Largo School called police to complain, according to David Cortman, an attorney for the two men. The two men were with the organization Gideons International and were distributing Bibles.

Cortman says after he filed the initial motion to dismiss for his clients, the state agreed to dismiss the charges but then filed new ones under a different statute -- one which made it illegal to be within 500 feet of any school, even if the individual is standing on a public sidewalk.

At a hearing last week, a Maricopa County judge granted the motion to dismiss the new charges against Simpson and Mirto, which Cortman says confirms that it was a case of an overaggressive government attempting to silence Christians exercising their constitutional rights.

"The First Amendment protects the right of Christians to distribute Bibles and engage in other religious speech on public sidewalks, and it's certainly a sad day when Gideons are arrested for distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk," states Cortman.

The attorney says Christians cannot be treated like second-class citizens for exercising their constitutional rights -- and the judge's dismissal confirms that, he adds.

Gideon can now witness without fear of arrest

A Gideon member who was threatened with arrest while handing out Bibles near a Florida public school has been granted a preliminary injunction by a judge in a federal civil lawsuit. The motion will allow Thomas Gray to freely witness and hand out literature in a disputed 500-foot zone around the school.

Gray was handing out Bibles on a public walkway inside the alleged zone outside of Key Largo school in January, along with Gideons International team members Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson when confronted by authorities. Mike Johnson of legal counsel Alliance Defense Fund says Mirto and Simpson were then arrested for trespassing. Gray was also threatened with arrest by an officer and was told none of the group could be "within 500 feet of the school's property."

"We filed this civil lawsuit to protect the right of Americans to share their faith in public. You know, free speech in America exists even within 500 feet of public school property; and under the First Amendment, these gentlemen certainly have the right to do exactly what they were doing," says Johnson.

Johnson says the federal court ruling also struck down as unconstitutional the state statute under which Gray was threatened with arrest, and he is free to continue his witnessing activities while his lawsuit moves forward. The city has since dropped trespassing charges against Mirto and Simpson, but they are still trying to prosecute the two under the 500-foot statute.