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Christian Activist Marcavage to Appeal Rejection of Lawsuit against Temple University 3/18/2005 He sued officials for trying to have him committed for protesting blasphemous play
An attorney for Christian activist Michael Marcavage told Concerned Women for America today (Friday) that he will appeal Thursday’s ruling that threw out the Repent America founder’s lawsuit against Temple University for trying to have him committed to an asylum after he announced that he would protest the campus staging of the play Corpus Christi. The play portrays Jesus as a homosexual.
The incident occurred in 1999 when Marcavage, a former White House West Wing intern, was a Temple student. He had posted fliers “so that all Christians on campus would be aware of this horrible play,” and met with two university officials, according to WorldNetDaily.com.
After the officials declined to allow him to pay for a stage to be set up for the protest, Marcavage said, he went to a nearby bathroom to pray. One of the officials, Carl Bittenbender, director of campus safety, according to Marcavage’s court testimony, pounded on the door, and then forced Marcavage to come back to the office of William Bergman, vice president for campus safety. There, the two men tried to physically prevent Marcavage from getting up from a chair and then, “tripped him to the floor” and “held him down,” according to the WorldNetDaily article.
A Temple University police officer arrived shortly, handcuffed Marcavage and took him to the Emergency Crisis Center at Temple University Hospital. There, Bittenbender allegedly signed a document describing Marcavage as “severely mentally disabled,” and that he was “a clear and present danger to others.” After being examined by two doctors, Marcavage was released three hours later. Neither physician “found any grounds for involuntary examination for the purpose of being committed,” Marcavage told CWA.
U.S. District Judge Patrice Tucker, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the medical records from the doctor’s examination were “irrelevant” to the case, according to Brian Fahling of the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, which is representing Marcavage. The same attorneys also represented Marcavage in the “Philly 5” case in which several Christians were charged with a “hate crime” and other felonies stemming from an incident at a Philadelphia homosexual street fair in October 2004. Those charges were dismissed in February on appeal by a judge who said she found no evidence of any wrongdoing. Marcavage’s attorneys are filing a federal lawsuit in that case, alleging civil rights violations by the city of Philadelphia.
As for Thursday’s decision, “the medical records of the doctor who saw Michael right afterward and who asserted Michael’s sanity were ruled inadmissible,” Fahling said. “Of course, it’s relevant.” Fahling said that the defendants’ own testimony was damaging to their case, because it was at odds with depositions taken earlier. “I believe that anyone who had listened to the witnesses testify and see that their stories had changed, they would believe Michael,” he said, adding that if the doctors themselves who examined Marcavage had been allowed on the stand, “they would have destroyed the defense’s case.”
Fahling said they have 30 days to file an appeal, and that he would do so within the next few weeks, basing it on the judge’s barring the admission of crucial evidence and testimony. Marcavage is seeking unspecified damages against the university. In Eastern Pennsylvania, juries set the amount, Fahling said.
Early on in the case, Marcavage’s attorneys had asked that the judge recuse herself, based on “appearances of impropriety.” This was based on her many ties to Temple University. Marcavage noted that she had received her bachelor’s and law degrees from Temple, was an adjunct Temple professor and received awards from not only the university but from the law firm that was representing Temple in this case.
Tucker, an African-American, responded at the time by accusing Marcavage’s Mississippi-based lawyers of using racist tactics. Another court official openly made disparaging remarks during the trial about the “white boys,” Fahling said. “It was unbelievable. I felt like we were in the Twilight Zone.” |
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