We’ve been talking about
“extravagant” spending at the nonprofit Trinity Broadcasting Network these
last few days — something Trinity tried to stop us from doing.
It is not often that we, personally, are called out in
court documents. But last week, Trinity
filed an emergency motion in Orange County Superior Court seeking
to, among other things, block the Register from publishing stories
based on the declaration of Brittany Koper, the granddaughter of Jan
and Paul Crouch.
The rather explosive internal records in Koper’s
declaration were stolen, TBN said. The 180-page document was filed on
Thursday, May 10, the day we got it; and sealed on Friday, May 11, until the
court decides its fate. Trinity tried to convince the court that we at The
Watchdog obtained it illegally, after it was sealed, and that the court
should thus stop us from writing about it.
“THE COURT … HAS SOME POWER OVER THE REGISTER BLOGGER
SINCE THE TBN RECORDS ARE ALLEGED TO BE STOLEN, AND THE ORDER SEALING THEM HAS
PRECEDED THE THREATENED PUBLICATION BY THE REGISTER,” Trinity’s
motion read.
We’d like to note that there was no threat involved; we
simply contacted Trinity’s lawyer, Colby May, on Friday, and told him
we’d be putting our story together on Monday and would like Trinity’s take on
it all.
That, apparently, set off quite a stir. Trinity rushed
into court, seeking a contempt order against Koper’s attorney — charging him
with leaking the documents after the seal order was issued — and seeking some
sort of action against us for allegedly unlawful news gathering.
“What to do with the Orange County blogger, Teri
Sforza, is a more challenging problem,” Trinity’s motion read. “But this
Court can issue some orders that case law supports, at least to keep the status
quo to determine if these records are in fact stolen and/or are forgeries….”
Trinity proceeded to argue that, while news reporting is
Constitutionally protected, “unlawful news gathering…does not enjoy
constitutional protection to the same extent.”
“The Court has the power to issue an order preventing Ms.
Sforza from publishing the TBN contents, at least temporarily, to determine if
the above cases apply,” Trinity said.
All this is faintly reminiscent of the arguments Trinity
made back in 2004, when it marched into the same courthouse and asked a judge to
stop the Los Angeles Times from publishing stories on Enoch Lonnie
Ford, a former TBN employee who was paid $425,000 to keep quiet
about claims of a homosexual tryst with Paul Crouch. Trinity had argued
that LAT reporter William Lobdell ”aided and abetted” Ford in violating
an April 2003 court order barring Ford from discussing his allegations. (The judge recused
himself after making a crack from the bench about removing Lobdell from the
courtroom “in shackles with a big ball chained to his foot so they can get a
picture of that in the paper and how noble they are.”)
This being a nation with a free press — where the Pentagon Papers
sort of set the bar — Trinity was not successful in halting publication
either time.
And in this instance, Koper’s attorney was not held in
contempt — though the hearing featured tremendous animosity between both sides,
our colleague Larry Welborn told us.
We would like to take this opportunity, however, to
explain a bit about the process of news gathering to Trinity.
The only two scenarios it could imagine under which we
could have obtained the documents were:
- “The
Security Hold was breached and the Register was able to access the Records
after the May 11,2012 order locking down the public access at 10:30 a.m.”
or
- ”(Koper)
Attorney Tymothy MacLeod knew at all times on Friday May 11, 20 12
when he stood in front of this Court, that the Register had some or all of
the records. He then deceived this Court and counsel allowing all to
believe that no known distribution of the TBN internal files had been
turned over to the media prior to the Order.
“Any other explanation is implausible,” Trinity said. “No
reporter randomly checks filings unless tipped off.”
Every court reporter in America would tell Trinity that
the job does, indeed, include randomly checking court filings. Every. Single.
Day.
More nonprofits:
- Suit
alleges TBN covered up rape of 13-year-old
- From
beloved granddaughter to exiled accuser: Brittany Koper and TBN
- Settlement
reached in TBN age discrimination case
- TBN
suit: Senior workers ‘too old, too sick, and too lazy'
- Mystery
math: How much do CSU bigwigs make?
- Relatives
threatened to ‘destroy' Crouch granddaughter
- TBN
extravagance? Read internal memos for yourself
- TBN
to judge: Stop Watchdog blogger
- Extravagant
spending a pervasive issue for Trinity, internal review says
- Confidential
memo: ‘TBN practices ... violate the IRS Code'
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