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Colorado Springs Church Undergoes Legal Battle
Legal Spotlight | 2007/07/29 10:30
The Gothic Revival tower of Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish stands as a monument to staid tradition - but this sanctuary has turned into a battleground.

Rebellious parishioners left the American Episcopal Church this spring, protesting its acceptance of gay unions and other departures from orthodoxy, to join a Nigerian Anglican diocese.

Now, the congregation is locked in a legal battle with the Colorado Diocese over ownership of the church, valued at $17 million.

The congregation also is trying to keep its conservative priest of 20 years, the Rev. Don Armstrong, in his pulpit, despite allegations of theft and fraud.

Tuesday, an Episcopal ecclesiastical court will weigh charges against Armstrong, who is accused by the diocese of stealing or misusing more than $500,000.

The battle for Grace Church is part of a global theological conflict within the worldwide 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

Liberal church members are pitted against conservative Anglicans in Africa, Asia and South America.

In Colorado, 14 congregations have moved to affiliate with African-led dioceses rather than the Episcopal Diocese in Denver.

Active membership in the American Episcopal Church has been in decline for four decades, hitting 2.3 million in 2004, according to church reports. Active membership in Colorado that year was about 33,000.

"The crisis of the Episcopal Church, the fault lines that run through that, run right through Grace Church," said Alan Crippen, a spokesman for St. Stephen's breakaway congregation.

"The Episcopal Church is dying," Crippen said. "It's dying in the United States. It's dying in Colorado. It's a denomination that's lost its relevance by accommodating the culture."

The split in the Anglican community widened in 2003 when the American church consecrated New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, who is openly gay.

This past February, leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion gave U.S. and Canadian churches an ultimatum: Stop blessing same-sex unions and consecrating openly gay bishops by Sept. 30 or face being asked to leave the Anglican Communion.

St. Stephen's Parish's breaking point came the night of March 26, hours after Armstrong had been charged by the diocese.

Nine of 10 church vestry members, the parish's lay leaders, voted to secede from the diocese and an American church they saw drifting left - away from Scripture and toward secular humanism.

"The people around that table believed the bishop was trying to destroy this parish," Crippen said.

Bishop Robert O'Neill, an outspoken liberal, had placed Armstrong on leave in the midst of the 2006 Christmas holidays. Although forbidden to have contact with parishioners, Armstrong defied the ban.

On the night of the vestry vote, Armstrong sent an e-mail to the senior warden, Jon Wroblewsi, saying of O'Neill: "He has no army and no keys and no authority - possession is nine-tenths of the law - and I have the microphone."

By Palm Sunday, Armstrong and parishioners had changed the church's locks.

About 250 exiled parishioners still loyal to the diocese had to worship at a borrowed church a few blocks away. Some 450 to 550 Armstrong followers held Grace Church.

"It was a big shock," said Tim Fuller, vestry member in the exiled parish. "This was done without consultation with the parish."

Before the split, Grace's rolls stood at about 2,000. Average Sunday attendance had been about 800 people, about the size of the congregation of St. John's Cathedral in Denver.

The diocese froze some parish bank accounts, Crippen said.

Breakaway parishioners filed a lawsuit on Good Friday asking the court to determine ownership of the parish's real and personal property.

Clash over motives

The breakaway group contends that it can better care for the property and that the diocese probably can't afford to keep Grace Church, Crippen said.

It costs $20,000 a month to run the church, he estimates. Programs and salaries aside, maintenance and utilities run about $8,000 monthly.

"That is a specious argument. You make that argument when the law is not on your side," said Lawrence Hitt II, chancellor of the diocese.

The parishioners can leave the Episcopal Church - but they can't take Grace Church with them, Hitt said.

The exit, he added, appears to be motivated less by theology and more by a desire to salvage Armstrong's ministerial career.

By late May, parishioners remaining at Grace with Armstrong had ratified the church vestry decision to join the African mission by a vote of 342 to 28.

The group chose to align themselves with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, CANA, a mission of the 17-million-member Nigerian Anglican Church.

The Diocese of Nigeria, the largest, after Great Britain, of Anglican Communion's 38 provinces, holds itself out as a safe harbor for conservative congregations estranged from North American dioceses.

CANA, founded in 2005, now includes 37 churches in 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Another African group - the 7-year-old Anglican Mission in the Americas - with oversight from Rwanda's Anglican province, claims affiliation with 116 congregations in North America, including 13 in Colorado, from Cortez to Broomfield.

Altogether, at least 200 of 7,200 Episcopal congregations in North America have aligned themselves with overseas provinces.

"Within the Episcopal Church, there is a lack of ability to draw clear boundaries ... regarding what is true and faithful to what God has revealed," said associate pastor Rob Paris of the Wellspring Anglican Church in Englewood, which is affiliated with the Rwanda mission.

Among the questions of orthodoxy, the congregations have split on how literally to interpret Scripture, whether Jesus' resurrection was a physical fact or a spiritual symbol, and whether the Bible forbids homosexuality.

Whatever the reason for churches leaving, the Colorado diocese said the legal precedent in this state is very clear since the 1986 Colorado Supreme Court decision Bishop and Diocese of Colorado vs. Mote.

When a faction within an Episcopal parish seeks to secede from the Episcopal Church, the property of the parish is held in trust by the local church for the general church and may not be taken by the seceding faction.

A hearing on the Grace dispute is set for October in district court in El Paso County.

"We love the building, but it's not an idol for us. It's a home, a heritage, but at the end of the day, the church is not a building," Crippen said. "It's the people."

If the diocese gets the building, Crippen predicts, it likely will have to sell it. Hitt said there is no basis to that claim.

Still, Crippen worries that Grace Church could suffer the same fate as the former St. Mark's at 12th Avenue and Lincoln Street in Denver, where a congregation seceded a decade ago over ordination of women priests.

"It's a nightclub now," he said. "There are some who fear that might be our destiny."


Arnold & Porter Expands Latin American Practice
Law Firm News | 2007/07/28 14:26
The Law Firm Newswire - Arnold & Porter LLP announced today that international corporate lawyer Juan Manuel Trujillo has joined the firm as a partner in New York. Mr. Trujillo’s practice focuses on corporate transactionalwork, including project, structured, and cross-border finance, as well as restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, commercial arbitration, joint ventures and investment projects throughout Latin America and other emerging markets. Mr. Trujillo’s arrival further deepens Arnold & Porter’s historic strength in the region. He joins a recently expanded team of lawyers practicing in Latin America.

“Juan is a welcome addition to our international corporate practice, which has a thriving base in Latin America,” said firm Chair Thomas Milch. “We believe his expertise will be an ideal fit in New York, a vital center for international transactions.”

Mr. Trujillo served as the seller’s lead counsel in the sale of the largest mining company in Bolivia and Argentina. The multi-jurisdictional transaction was listed as one of the “20 Top Deals in Latin America” by LatinFinance in 2005. He also oversaw the debt restructuring of one of the largest commercial groups in Chile and the debt restructuring and joint venture negotiation of Mexico’s largest motor coach manufacturer. Mr. Trujillo advised the lenders in the acquisition financing for a controlling interest in thirteen airports located in Mexico.

He has represented clients in multiple financings of various power plants in Latin America, including the financing of a thermoelectric power plant in Brazil, selected as project finance deal of the year in 2002 by Project Finance magazine, and other project finance transactions in Mexico, Chile and Guatemala. Mr. Trujillo also advised a financial services client in connection with its $5.2 billion investment program, including credit facilities with the International Finance Corporation (World Bank), the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and multiple commercial lenders. He has represented clients in joint ventures including a U.S. asset management company in a $420 million joint-venture with Brazil’s largest commercial bank and advised on another joint venture between the largest mining company in Bolivia and the Commonwealth Development Corporation in the UK.

Commenting on his arrival at Arnold & Porter, Mr. Trujillo said, “I am looking forward to joining a team that has exceptional breadth and depth of experience in Latin America, in both complex transactional matters and corporate dispute resolution.”

Earlier this year, Arnold & Porter expanded its platform in transactions and international arbitration in Latin America. In March, São Paulo-based international finance lawyer Gregory Harrington joined the firm to advise clients in the areas of capital markets, sovereign debt, and project finance; he moved to the Washington, D.C. office in early July. Last month, a significant international arbitration team led by partners Paolo Di Rosa and Gaela Gehring Flores joined the firm, along with international corporate lawyer Raul Herrera, who has extensive experience throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. They join an existing team of lawyers representing public and private sector clients throughout the region, including the central banks or ministries of finance of a number of Latin American countries.

Arnold & Porter LLP, an international law firm of approximately 600 attorneys, has offices in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, London, and Brussels. The firm, founded in 1946, maintains more than 25 practice areas spanning a broad spectrum of the law, with a primary focus on litigation, transactional matters and regulatory issues.


Court awards oral surgeon $750,000 in boar-tusk case
Court Watch | 2007/07/27 10:12

A local oral surgeon should have been backed by his insurance provider when an employee sued him for putting fake boar tusks in her mouth and taking photographs while he performed a dental procedure on her, the state Supreme Court decided today. The court ruled that Auburn dentist Robert Woo should have received legal defense from Fireman's Fund Insurance, restoring an original jury verdict to award the dentist $750,000 after it was overturned by an appeals court.

In a dissenting opinion, one justice wrote that today's decision "rewards Dr. Woo's obnoxious behavior and allows him to profit handsomely," while also calling the original incident involving his assistant "intentional offensive and likely tortuous conduct."

Woo will get $750,000 in damages, attorney fees, and is also reimbursed the $250,000 that he paid to settle the original lawsuit with his employee.

The eight-year legal jumble can all be traced back to a pot-bellied pig named Walter, owned by Woo's surgical assistant. The assistant, who worked for Woo for five years, talked frequently about Walter in the office, and about the abandoned pot-bellied pigs that she cared for, according to court documents.

Woo made several remarks, including how he would like to barbecue Walter, documents said. He went on a boar-hunting trip and brought back pictures of a dead boar to show the assistant. Woo claimed that his comments were just part of a "friendly working environment," documents said.

But then he pulled out the fake boar tusks.

The assistant needed to have two teeth replaced with implants, and Woo told her he could do it, documents said.

Woo prepared a pair of fake boar tusks and, while his assistant was sedated for the procedure, Woo removed the oxygen mask, inserted the tusks in her mouth and took photos without her consent. He later developed the pictures and showed them to employees, and later one of his other employees gave them to the assistant as a birthday present. The assistant was stunned.

So stunned that she filed a lawsuit with several complaints against the dentist, including invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress and medical negligence.

Woo sought defense with his insurer, Fireman's, who would not defend him because his actions did not fall under "dental services," documents said.

Woo settled with his assistant for $250,000 and then took his insurer to court. In June 2003, the King County Superior Court jury awarded the dentist $750,000, but that was overturned two years later by the state Court of Appeals, although it left the $250,000 settlement intact.



Embattled Gonzales talks crime-fighting in Indy
Breaking Legal News | 2007/07/27 10:11

Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is in Indianapolis Friday addressing law enforcement assigned to sex crimes. Gonzales' appearance comes one day after Senate Democrats called for a special prosecutor to investigate whether he committed perjury. Gonzales faces new questions about his credibility because of apparent contradictions between his sworn Senate testimony and an intelligence official's statements. As a result, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has threatened to request a perjury investigation of Gonzales.

Gonzales didn't mention this latest controversy, instead, sticking to his speech to law enforcement.

"My promise to this group and to the parents of America is that I'm committed. I will not rest, even after I'm no longer attorney general, until this nation is better able to shield our children from crimes," he said.

Gonzales has resisted calls from members of Congress to step down as attorney general. The White House defended Gonzales on Thursday against accusations he gave misleading testimony to Congress. A key Republican senator critical of Gonzales said there was no sign that President Bush's support for the attorney general was weakening.

Sen. Arlen Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accompanied Bush on an Air Force One on a trip to Philadelphia. At a hearing on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Republican had told Gonzales, "I do not find your testimony credible, candidly."

The senator Thursday that Bush was sticking by Gonzales out of personal loyalty, despite the attorney general's deteriorating support on Capitol Hill. "The hearing two days ago was devastating (for Gonzales). But so was the hearing before that and so was the hearing before that," Specter said.



Calif. Court Rules Against Car Seizures
Legal Business | 2007/07/27 06:10
A sharply divided state Supreme Court ruled that California cities can no longer seize vehicles whose drivers are arrested for allegedly buying drugs or soliciting prostitutes. The ruling Thursday overturns the laws of more than two dozen cities from Oakland to Los Angeles that allowed police to seize a vehicle immediately after its driver's arrest.

Even drivers suspected of buying a small amount of marijuana, a low-level crime punishable by a $100 fine, faced seizures in many of the cities with the ordinances.

The 4-3 ruling said only state law can mete out punishment for drug and prostitution offenses and without authorization from the Legislature, cities can't pass seizure ordinances that are harsher than state and federal laws.

Many urban city councils said they enacted the seizure laws as a way to combat drug sales and prostitution and clean up some of their most blighted neighborhoods.

The ruling didn't address newer city laws that allow police to seize cars allegedly participating in illegal street races and "sideshows."



Mulroney Vows To Fight Court Ruling
International | 2007/07/27 03:12
Brian Mulroney has filed a motion to set aside a court ruling ordering him to pay $470,000 to former business associate Karlheinz Schreiber.

The ruling, which caught Mulroney's lawyers off guard, came Thursday in a default judgment by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The motion being argued today in a Toronto courtroom says the judgment was made in the face of a pending motion that challenged the Ontario court's jurisdiction.

In the motion, Mulroney's lawyers argue their client successfully met the deadline to respond to a lawsuit filed by Schreiber.

The motion argues Mulroney can't be found in default without an express court order delivered with proper notice to his lawyers.

Schreiber sued the former prime minister to recoup $300,000 in cash the businessman says he handed to Mulroney over three meetings in hotel rooms in New York and Montreal in 1993 and 1994.



Court: Russia to Pay Chechens
International | 2007/07/27 02:13
The European Court of Human Rights ordered the Russian government to pay damages of $196,000 to the family members of 11 Chechen civilians killed by Russian soldiers in 2000.

The court, in a Thursday ruling, suggested that by not bringing the soldiers to justice, Russian prosecutors had implicitly accepted the massacre in Novye Aldi, when security forces rampaged through the town, setting fire to houses and killing at least 50 civilians.

``The astonishing ineffectiveness of the prosecuting authorities in this case can only be qualified as acquiescence in the events,'' the court said in its decision.

Moscow has denied that its security forces are guilty of atrocities in the southern Muslim republic of Chechnya, where two wars have been fought to re-establish Russian control following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

But relatives of Chechen victims have recently been seeking reparations from the Strasbourg-based human rights court - and winning.

Russia said last week that it wanted to restrict the flow of appeals to the court by allowing its citizens to file human rights cases against the state in Russian courts - something they cannot do now.

Chechens have opposed this move, saying they fear the government wants to deprive them of their only hope for justice.

The court has issued more than 10 verdicts against Russia in the past few months in cases concerning the Chechen wars. Some 200 are still pending.



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