Steve Dean led other fed-up Christians for five days picketing the corrupt state supreme court judges for sicking the police on him without any reason whatsoever. (photo above).
Should a delegation of pastors have the right to peacefully deliver 11,100 petitions on behalf of Steve Dean, signed by voting age Mississippians, to the Mississippi Supreme Court without the Justices calling the police on Dean?
Should a delegation of Jackson, Mississippi pastors be able to peacefully deliver 11,100 petitions to Chief Justice James W. Smith, Jr., Justices James E. Graves, Jr. Kay B. Cobb, George Carlson, Jr. and the other Justices on the Mississippi Supreme Court informing them that they are outraged with the way a Mississippi Board Chaired by James R. Mozingo has discriminated against Christian activist E. Stephen Dean for over three years by refusing to give him a final answer to his request to take the bar exam so that after becoming licensed to practice law he can represent Christians on Christian issues free? Did those Justices act in a Christian manner when they responded to the delivery of the petitions by calling the police on Dean?
History was made in Mississippi when 11,100 Christians in this state became so outraged with state judges discriminating against a Christian, Dean, for years, that all of them signed individual complaints in the form of petitions that were later hand delivered by peaceful concerned pastors to the Supreme Court Building.
Chief Justice James W. Smith, Jr, Justice James E. Graves, Jr. and the other Justices responded to the peaceful delivery of the petitions by doing absolutely nothing for more than forty eight hours and then calling the police on Steve Dean.
They called Lt. Charles Waites of the Capitol Police, and informed him that they had decided after studying the petitions and the accompanying letter that they believed that the letter was a threatening letter because it used the words “righteous indignation.” They then ordered him to investigate the writer of that letter, Dean. Dean’s name also appeared on all of the petitions. However, he had accompanied the pastors when they delivered the petitions because he was covering the news event as a reporter for his website www.lawopenforum.com. The petitions also indicated that he is an avowed Christian.
It is surprising that Justices Smith, Graves and the others are unfamiliar with the word ‘righteous’ and the word ‘indignation’ even though the word ‘righteous’ is to be found in the Bible more than 230 times and the word ‘indignation’ more than 35 times. This is even more surprising since Chief Justice Smith and Justice Graves are known to speak before many church groups around election time, including Dean’s church, Greater Bethlehem Temple Church of Jackson, presenting themselves as Christians, then asking the church members to vote for them. Perhaps all of the Justices’ are so busy with their official duties that they have not had time to familiarize themselves with the Word of God. If they actually did feel threatened, this is the most reasonable explanation for them feeling so threatened when they read the words “righteous indignation” that they believed it was necessary for them to call the police! It is still difficult to understand that if they sincerely believed that they had been threatened why then did it take them more than forty eight hours to come to that conclusion?
The concerned delegation of pastors arrived at the entrance door to the Supreme Court Building located in the underground parking lot at 8:45 AM on Monday, July 11, 2005. They then walked up to the armed guard located in the Supreme Court Building and asked him to phone the Justices’ secretary and ask that he/she come down and pick up the petitions. The officer said: “I’m sorry we don’t have a phone here. You will have to take the elevator to the 3 rd floor and ask that someone at the desk call upstairs.” The delegation did as he instructed. When they arrived at the third floor they left the clear plastic boxes filled with the petitions on the floor in front of the clerk and asked her to phone upstairs at the Justices’ office to have someone come down and get them. Then they all walked to the elevator and peacefully left the building.
Later, in fact more than two full days after the petitions were delivered, Lt. Waites phoned for Dean, spoke to his wife and told her that he was Lt. Charles Waites of the Capitol Police and that he wanted to speak to Mr. Stephen Dean, gave her his phone number and hung up. She immediately phoned her husband and gave him the police officer’s message. He then immediately phoned Lt. Waites. Lt. Waites at all times throughout their phone conversation conducted himself as a gentleman. He was courteous and efficient. Dean makes this statement based upon his more than fifteen years of calling on law enforcement as an insurance salesman. He has the greatest respect for all officers of the law and is very pleased that he has received the written personal endorsement of such organizations as the MO. State Troopers Association, City of St. Louis Police Officers Association and others. In fact, one of the glowing letters of recommendation submitted on his behalf in March 2002 to Chairman, MS Board Bar Admissions, James R. Mozingo, with his request to sit for the Bar Exam, was from a past president of the State Troopers Association. Mozingo’s response to the past president of the State Troopers Association’s glowing letter of endorsement of Dean was to vilify and belittle it.
Dean phoned Lt. Waites minutes after his wife called him and politely asked the Lieutenant how he could be of service to him. Generally, Waites told him that he was investigating the letter that accompanied the 11,100 petitions delivered to the Justices because the Justices were concerned that the letter was threatening due to the use of the words “righteous indignation”. (A more plausable explanation as to why the Justices ordered the police to investigate the writer of the letter is that the Justices were furious that the public had dared to criticize them and they were attempting to chill the critics’ Constitutional Free Speech Rights by scaring them). He then asked Dean to agree with him that those words could be interpreted as a threat and Dean responded, “Respectfully [officer], no I do not agree. Any student of the Bible knows that the term is applicable when a Christian is tired of the way another Christian is being treated”.
He went on to inform Waites that the Justices are very familiar with the fact that he submitted his application to take the Bar Exam over three years ago this past March and they are also very familiar with the fact that even though he is not a lawyer he has appeared before the second highest federal court in the United States the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit representing himself as the Plaintiff against what was published as the Director of a State Bar. Dean won the appeals case, Dean v. Byerley 354 F. 3d 540 (6th Cir. 2004).
They also are aware that two years ago he officially requested them to order Mississippi Board Chairman Mozingo to issue an immediate yes or no answer to his request, filed two years ago, to take the Bar Exam and the Justices’ refused.
Dean knew that the Justices had been informed in detail over six months before by a letter sent to each of them from a well known, highly respected, religious leader about Dean’s persecution by Chairman Mozingo, his Board, and his Character and Fitness Committee simply because he is a Christian activist. The letter also informed the Justices in detail about the Hearing Mozingo and his associates held on April 17, 2003 which Dean attended as a witness accompanied by a group of Christians who packed the courtroom in support of his being allowed to take the Bar Exam. At that Hearing Mozingo and his associates lied to the group of Christians when, impliedly but clearly, they told the Christians that they would take prompt action on their request. They lied because it is now more than two years after they made that promise and they still have done virtually nothing about his request to take the Bar Exam.
The Justices also have had written notification for months that Dean is a member of Greater Bethlehem Temple Church, Jackson. Chief Justice Smith, Jr. and Justice James Graves, Jr. know Dean’s Bishop and either could easily have phoned him to ask for a character reference on Dean but they chose instead to call the police on Dean.
Smith and Graves both know Dean’s Bishop personally because both have campaigned for election before Bishop Coleman’s Greater Bethlehem Temple Churches’ 2500 member congregation. They did not contact the Bishop and ask for a character reference on Dean because they hoped that if they called in the police that the criticism of them would stop and that it would stop immediately. They wrong!
Dean has been waiting for years, since he graduated from law school at age 60, to be allowed to take the Bar Exam so after passing he can represent Christians, Christian ministers and Christian churches on Christian issues absolutely free of any charges.
Mozingo, his associate board members and the members on the so called Character and Fitness Committee clearly are judicial tyrants. They are judicial tyrants because they have engaged in judicial tyranny for over two years by refusing to issue a final yes or no decision on Dean’s request to take the Bar Exam so that after passing he can represent Christians, Christian ministers and Christian churches on Christian issues free of any charges.
The persons named below are Supreme Court Justices.
James W. Smith, Jr., William L. Waller, Jr., Kay B. Cobb, Oliver E. Diaz, George C. Carlson, Jr., James E. Graves, Jr., Jess H. Dickinson, Michael K. Randolph