Florida cop abuses subpoena authority against bloggers who criticize pastors

April 13, 2009 @ 2:08AM

Florida cop abuses subpoena authority against bloggers who criticize pastors

By Carlos Miller -...

A Jacksonville Sheriff’s detective who works off-duty for a local pastor used his law enforcement authority to subpoena personal information on an anonymous blogger who was critical of the pastor who employed him.

Detective Robert Hinson, who also serves as Rev. Mac Brunson’s bodyguard, closed the investigations against the blogger a few weeks after receiving the information from Google and Comcast.

But not before handing over the blogger’s personal information to the pastor – essentially outing him against his will – in an inquisition-style conflict of interest that threatens the separation of church and state guaranteed by our Constitution.

The pastor, in turn, banned the blogger and his family from First Baptist Church, the largest church in Jacksonville, by threatening to arrest them for trespassing if they dared step on church property again.

Now blogger Tom Rich, who runs the blog FBC Jax Watchdog, is preparing to strike back legally.

“We’re talking First Amendment issues, federal privacy issues, slander issues,” the 45-year-old engineer and teacher said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Sunday night.

“We’re going to use every legal means possible to shine the brightest light to see what they did and why they did it.”

Hinson also went through the State Attorney’s Office to subpoena the information of two other bloggers who were critical of two other pastors, including a blogger who doesn’t even live in Florida and another who doesn’t even blog anonymously.

Tiffany Croft blogs about pastor Darrel Gilyard, a Jacksonville preacher who is awaiting trial for sending sexually explicit text messages to teenage girls. Croft says she was a victim of sexually explicit phone calls from Gilyard when she was a teenager.

And the anonymous blogger who operates New BBC Open Forum is based in Memphis and is critical of pastor Steve Gaines.

The subpeonas against these three bloggers is the latest example of law enforcement using its authority to crack down on bloggers whose only crime is to write unfavorable things about the powers that be, whether it is the church or an actual police department.

Not only were none of the bloggers in this case ever charged criminally, they were not even aware that Hinson had been investigating them. According to the Florida Times-Union, the reason the sheriff’s office investigated Rich was because of the “possible criminal overtones” of his blog.

However, Rich said he all he did was criticize the pastor’s “abusive preaching” style.

“I analyzed and commented on his own words and actions,” he said.

Rich also questioned certain “gifts” the pastor received after arriving in Jacksonville in 2006, including a $307,000 half-acre of property in an exclusive private golf club community.

Although no criminal evidence arose during the six-week investigation against Rich, Jacksonville Undersheriff Frank Mackesy said Hinson acted properly in handing over Rich’s personal information to the church so it could “take whatever internal action it felt necessary for its own safety.”

Sheriff John Rutherford further supported Hinson’s actions in an email to CBS47.com.

The only reason Rich found out Hinson had subpoenaed his information was because he received information from an inside source who believed Rich’s rights had been violated. He also learned that church leaders were slandering him by accusing him of stalking the Pastor’s wife, stealing their mail and photographing the pastor’s wife in public (as if the latter is even a crime).

Brunson also told the Florida Times-Union that Rich was a “sociopath” with an “obsessive compulsive problem” who is “not very stable at all.”

“The man has never met me,” said Rich, who was a member of the First Baptist Church for two decades before he was barred. “We have never even shaken hands.”

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I am a multimedia journalist who has been fighting a lengthy legal battle after having photographed Miami police against their wishes in Feb. 2007. Please help the fight by donating to my Legal Defense Fund in the top left sidebar, which helps pay for the thousands of dollars I’ve acrued in debt since my arrest. To keep updated on the latest articles, join my networks at Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed.

Comments

Anonymous

3 years ago

Hey Carlos can you get ahold of the Paster and get his side of the story too. I mean yes rich has every right to remain anonomis and the sheriff had absolutly NO RIGHT TO INPEAD on Riches freedom of speach I think he stands a good chance of winning a law suit against the Sheriff and the Church for that matter
thanks for the great stories Carlos

Anonymous

3 years ago

ABD,

The pastor issued a statement on his website that was so lame and irrelevant, I didn’t even bother including it in the story. But here it is if you’re interested.

http://www.fbcjax.com/images/uploads/Response%20to%20TU%20Article%2004-0...

Anonymous

3 years ago

I don’t understand church… Especially in these circumstances. From what I have seen, it is just a waste of time and money. (Yes, I have been in more than one church, a few times.)

Anonymous

3 years ago

sigh, it’s things like this that give churches bad names. That preacher is lame.
On that note, why the hell does a preacher need a bodyguard anyway?

Anonymous

3 years ago

Let’s file complaints with the IRS against these pricks.

Anonymous

3 years ago

“Scott Chamness // Apr 13, 2009 at 7:34 AM

sigh, it’s things like this that give churches bad names. That preacher is lame.
On that note, why the hell does a preacher need a bodyguard anyway?”

The same reason Security Guards at Insurance Companies carry side arms. They are running a scam that preys upon the most susceptible people at their weakest moments, bilking them through coercion/ manipulation/ fear out of hard earned money. Nothing more, nothing less.
When will mega churchies realize that a shiny, animated talking head of a pastor who is flashing tons of cash on the side is not necessarily “one with the lord”.
Transformation of this cancerous institution is impossible, it is a waste of time, The thing that makes religion deplorable is the hijacking of basic culture, morality, and community. All these simple survival concepts were ingrained in our ancestors at the dawn of man.

Want proof?
We are here.

PS This pastor is horrible at preaching, and public delivery. put him on a used car lot, and he would go broke in a week.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Who would Jesus subpoena?

Ridiculous. The pastor’s ‘relevance’ will surely wither and die in the bright light of journalism.

Anonymous

3 years ago

I would say to FBC Jax Watchdog that he continue blogging about the church. Even if he can’t attend it anymore, he must still have friends that attend, they can tell him if there’s still exploitation going on in the church.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Hinson and Brunson just volunteered the sheriff’s office and the church to be Tom Rich’s personal bank account.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Who would Jesus subpoena?

I wish I would have thought of that as a headline.

Anonymous

3 years ago

This is just another shot of the corruption of cops.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Background checks on the apostles!
EPA demanding studies on the environmental effects of walking on the ocean!
Waterwine with clear labeling of it’s alcohol content!

Anonymous

3 years ago

This is why I love your site Carlos. I never would have heard about this otherwise – this kind of stuff infuriates me. This cop should face the consequences for his actions.

Good work

Anonymous

3 years ago

Thanks John.

These stories tend to remain at a regional level.

I try my best to share them with the rest of the world.

Anonymous

3 years ago

I’m the anonymous Memphis blogger whose personal information was subpoenaed on behalf of FBC Jacksonville. I’ve yet to discover the “criminal activity” of which I was suspected. I’ve never set foot in the state of Florida, much less Jacksonville, and other than the similarity between our church situations, I have no interest in Mac Brunson or FBC Jax. It’s bad enough they targeted the Watchdog. It’s beyond comprehension why they would target Tiffany Croft and me. I do, however, plan to get to the bottom of this.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Well please keep me posted.

Anonymous

3 years ago

Notastepford Sheep,

I sincerely hope you plan on suing the city of Jacksonville for this flagrant abuse of power. The only way… the ONLY way… this kind of stuff will stop is if someone is made to pay a price for it.

Let us know how things progress…

Anonymous

3 years ago

Thanks. Will keep you updated.

Anonymous

2 years ago

“Lame and irrelevant” indeed! I wonder what he’s say from the pulpit when the lawsuit pops? Cry, and whine, and beg the church for more money, so he can fight the dirty, bad, nasty bloggers for standing up for their rights!

Anonymous

2 years ago

I suspect you now have the good sense to stay out of them altogether!

Anonymous

2 years ago

Yeah, its things like this that give churches a bad name in addition to the fact that they feed the congregation a big line brown stinky bovine gravy and pick their pockets at every opportunity.

Anonymous

2 years ago

Go for it. However, be forewarned that when you DO get to the bottom of it you’ll have to hold your nose tightly due to the stench!