TTSOML #51: Evidence Of Improper Use Of Mt. Angel Police

(continuation of previous TTSOML (the true story of my life) posts):

After being assaulted by the priest at the Abbey church, I continued to protest at the same spot, in the town of Mt. Angel, where I had been instructed it was legal. I had people coming down from the Abbey still, asking me what I "wanted". I didn't "want" anything except an apology and to have my civil rights respected, and to not be defamed. I had some Abbey fans, lied to by clergy, who decided I was "evil" and a "Protestant! out to ruin our church!" and they had been told I had been trying to "seduce" their good monk. So some of the Catholic laypeople were very hostile towards me, thinking I had done a bunch of things I hadn't done, and assuming the worst about me. I really don't blame THEM, because they trusted the clergy to tell them the truth, just as I had also trusted the clergy to be honest. However, it made things difficult for me because then I had some people coming up and just saying nasty things. Once I had an entire group of Mexican/philipino monks from Mt. Angel walk by me and sneer at me, glare, make "crazy" circles around their ears, and a couple pretended to lunge towards me. I was shocked, because they all walked down and passed me and then walked back up to pass me again. I DID notice at least one monk who looked like he felt bad for what the rest were doing, and he didn't participate in the harassment. I said nothing, and let them do what they wanted. I had a few people think I was lying about Br. Ansgar, so finally I decided to make photocopies of some of his letters to me, including the one which began: "Dear Cameo, rose in my desert, didn't you know, couldn't you tell, I also feel the same?" and the one which says "Love causes pain...You don't think you caused me pain when you broke it off the second time?" I posted multiple copies of the letter to the signs and people took them and it actually shut some people up, but some would still try to argue it meant something else (?!). One man took a copy back up to the Abbey. I actually thought, at the time, that maybe the Abbot just didn't "know" but I realized he knew everything.

I also noticed how there were rummage sale signs all over town, for yardsales, on telephone posts, and how there were signs from the Catholic church in town on the poles too. Not the Abbey church, but the other catholic church in Mt. Angel. I had a lot of people coming up to me about their own stories of abuse, so I decided to post some signs on the telephone poles, with my phone number, requesting abused persons to contact me. I had just finished posting these, and was sitting in the protest chair, when the Mt. Angel police came up to me again, in the middle of my protest. He said the Abbey had asked them to cite me again. All the orders for citations were coming from Lynn Morris, the Human Resource person. So the officer proceeded to give me a citation, for what he said was violation of a "town ordinance". What town ordinance? I asked. He said it was against their rules to post signs on telephone poles. I had done this, on about 8-10 poles, in the public town of Mt. Angel, not at the Abbey. But the Abbey officials were the ones to call the police and ask them to ticket me. I told the officer I hadn't known this was a town ordinance and he said: "Ignorance isn't a defense!"

I asked him why everyone else in town was allowed to post signs on the poles, and had been doing it all summer, except ME. I said it seemed I was being singled out. He said, waving at my protest station set-up, "You shouldn't be doing this--this is getting you into trouble." I said, "This is LEGAL." He repeated that I was getting myself into trouble and that I should quit protesting if I didn't want more citations.

After I got the citation for putting up signs on telephone poles, I noticed the Mt. Angel catholic church had put flyers on poles and all over cars in parking lots and alongside the public streets of Mt. Angel, in violation of the "town ordinance". I got out my camera and spent a roll of film taking photos. I had proof now, that I was being singled out in an uneven application of the "laws".

Not only that, I received the citations almost back to back, from one protesting stint to the next. I had the first for supposed "harassment" by sending a faux menu to the Abbey, in response to their public advertisement, and I had the second citation for "violation of town ordinance" or whatever, the very next time I went up to protest. I had two tickets, and both times they were given to my while I was protesting peacefully, and I hadn't done anything wrong. I had also been assaulted by one of their priests, and then one officer was discouraged from citing the priest, but told the Abbey wanted to "trespass" me from their property thereafter (which means they just ask you not to return--there was no charge of anything).

Right about that time, someone from Mt. Angel told me to see Dan Gatti, a lawyer in Salem, Oregon. So that's what I did next, with my two citations in hand, and I'm not sure that's the best decision I've ever made.

I have some questions, still.