Westboro people disgust me.

[Teresa Heilevang]

I hope they start peein down their legs every time they even THINK about protesting a funeral...they are vile, disgusting, hateful wastes of oxygen


BY TIM POTTER AND DEB GRUVER
The Wichita Eagle


Prosecutors today charged a decorated, double-amputee veteran with stalking and three counts of criminal use of a firearm in an incident involving members of a controversial Topeka church. Ryan J. Newell, 26, an Army veteran living in Marion, made his first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court through a video connection with the Sedgwick County Jail. He also was charged with false impersonation. His bond remains at $500,000.


VETERAN CHARGED WITH STALKING PHELPS FAMILY


WICHITA — Prosecutors today charged a decorated, double-amputee veteran with stalking and three counts of criminal use of weapons in an incident involving members of a controversial Topeka church.
Ryan J. Newell, 26, an Army veteran living in Marion, made his first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court through a video connection with the Sedgwick County Jail.
He also was charged with false impersonation of a law enforcement officer.
All the charges are misdemeanors.
His bond remains at $500,000.
The stalking charge accuses Newell of actions targeted at Westboro Baptist Church members and putting them in fear for their safety.
The weapons charges accuse him of unlawfully carrying and concealing or possessing with "intent to use" an M4 rifle, .45-caliber Glock handgun and .38-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun.
Two lawyers appeared in court at today's first appearance offering to represent Newell. He told Judge Ben Burgess that he had received offers from a number of attorneys wanting to represent him.
Burgess quipped, "The more the merrier, I suppose."
Newell, who appeared in a wheelchair and was wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, was ordered to have no contact with members of the church.
Newell's maternal grandmother saw him on Thanksgiving and said, "I think he looked better that day than I'd seen him in a long time."
She said he had never talked to her about the Phelps family but she knew he didn't like their protests at military funerals.
"He was for the United States, and he would give his life for it," she said.
The grandmother said she and her husband talked to Newell once or twice a month in recent months and wrote to him while he was serving abroad. They visited him in the hospital after he was injured in Afghanistan.
Newell had been having some health problems, she said, but his spirits were good at times.
"I just can't imagine him wanting to hurt anybody," she said, adding she learned about her grandson's arrest from his brother.
Many residents in Marion had not heard about Newell's arrest Wednesday. Neither had the local newspaper.
Newell's wife, Carrie, appeared tired and worn when she answered the door at their home Wednesday. She declined to talk to a reporter, as did her father.
Marion residents put on a parade for Newell when he returned home from Afghanistan and pitched in to help build his family a new home through the nonprofit group Homes for Our Troops.
A big sign in the Newells' yard designates his home as one built through the organization. The home was designed to accommodate his injuries.
Sedgwick County sheriff's detectives arrested Newell mid-morning Tuesday in the Wichita City Hall parking lot after a detective saw him following a van with members of Westboro Baptist Church, Sheriff Robert Hinshaw has said.
The church members were meeting in City Hall with police officials. Detectives found Newell in a vehicle backed into a parking space. In the vehicle, investigators found two handguns, a rifle and more than 90 rounds of ammunition, sources have said.
Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to Newell's home, and his wife turned over items including firearms to law enforcement, said a source close to the investigation.
The Topeka church has drawn wide condemnation because its members protest at soldiers' funerals nationwide. The members claim that war deaths are God's punishment for immorality.
Newell lost his legs after an improvised bomb exploded while he was serving in Afghanistan in 2008. Some of his fellow soldiers died in the attack.
The church did not protest at funerals of the soldiers who were killed in the bombing that wounded Newell, said Westboro spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Newell has received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, a relative said.
Marsha Hephner, 69, of Arkansas City, said she thinks Newell will receive widespread sympathy.
"I think it doesn't even matter what side of the political spectrum you are on," Hephner said. "What these (Westboro) people are doing is wrong. I'm a liberal liberal, and I do believe in freedom of speech, but what these people are doing, they offend the words 'freedom of speech.' "


Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/12/02/1615474/wounded-vet-charged-in-westboro.html#ixzz174bpULIX

[TAB]

I'm still shocked, no one has kiled them yet.


They have been pulling crap for a long, long time. All anti gay stuff.  At 1st it was AIDS funerals, now its KIAs.


I know one thing, if the leader POS ever gets in jail... I have little doubt some one there is going to show him what being gay really means.

[kmitch200]

The weapons charges accuse him of unlawfully carrying and concealing or possessing with "intent to use"

So now they have detective Carnac The Magnificent?
Unless this guy made some really stupid statements how do you prove "intent to use"?

The whole situation with this asshat 'church' stinks to high heaven....

[tombogan03884]

Whether he truly had "intent to use" or not, it has put the thought in the minds of the Phelps family that "Hey, maybe lawyers aren't as much protection as we thought".
They have already proven they have no acquaintance with "decency", let's see if they are familiar with "self preservation".


Interesting quotes :

He told Judge Ben Burgess that he had received offers from a number of attorneys wanting to represent him.
Burgess quipped, "The more the merrier, I suppose."

"Marsha Hephner, 69, of Arkansas City, said she thinks Newell will receive widespread sympathy.
"I think it doesn't even matter what side of the political spectrum you are on," Hephner said. "What these (Westboro) people are doing is wrong. I'm a liberal liberal, and I do believe in freedom of speech, but what these people are doing, they offend the words 'freedom of speech.' "

[crusader rabbit]

If that young Army Hero requests a jury trial, I don't see any way he's found guilty of anything.  Hell, he'd probably get a Key to the City and another medal.

The Phelps crowd is sub-human vermin.  They should be eradicated like any other diseased weasels.

[Sponsor]

[tt11758]

The weapons charges accuse him of unlawfully carrying and concealing or possessing with "intent to use"

So now they have detective Carnac The Magnificent?
Unless this guy made some really stupid statements how do you prove "intent to use"?

The whole situation with this asshat 'church' stinks to high heaven....

A very valid point.  Back in the 1970's when I went through the Academy, "Mind Reading" was NOT one of the courses they taught.

They found 90 rounds of ammo in his vehicle?  Whoopdee-freakin-doo!!!  Less than 2 full boxes of handgun ammo.  Please.  I bring more than that home from Wal-Mart every time I visit.

And while I agree that the Westboro people are vile, reprehensible vermins......if we are to be consistent in our belief in Constitutional rights, we need to defend their right to be wrong.  Hell, it's easy to support the 1st Amendment rights of somebody with whom you agree.  Where it gets tough is when you have to defend the right of some asshat to say something you know in your heart to be wrong.

[tombogan03884]

TT, I don't see it as a matter of their "right to be wrong", it is a matter of common decency and allowing a family and community to mourn their loved ones. Where in the Constitution does it say that the rights of ass holes take precedence over the rights of families ?

[ratcatcher55]

TT, I don't see it as a matter of their "right to be wrong", it is a matter of common decency and allowing a family and community to mourn their loved ones. Where in the Constitution does it say that the rights of ass holes take precedence over the rights of families ?

+1

I thought the Constitution and Bill of Rights limited .gov. It had nothing to do with berating dead soldiers and their families.
Claiming God wants Congress to rot in hell seems fine with me under the Bill of Rights. Saying that about someone's son or daughter would not be covered under that.

Of course I'm not a scum sucking lawyer for an inbreed family of profiteering mutants. They have a different opinion of free speach.

[tombogan03884]

+1

I thought the Constitution and Bill of Rights limited .gov. It had nothing to do with berating dead soldiers and their families.
Claiming God wants Congress to rot in hell seems fine with me under the Bill of Rights. Saying that about someone's son or daughter would not be covered under that.

Of course I'm not a scum sucking lawyer for an inbreed family of profiteering mutants. They have a different opinion of free speach.

The ironic part is that their "right to be disrespectful, scum sucking leeches" was bought for them by the same military who's dead they insult.
If they hate the military so much they should be willing to sacrifice the things that military have provided them, such as freedom of speech.

[kmitch200]

TT, I don't see it as a matter of their "right to be wrong", it is a matter of common decency and allowing a family and community to mourn their loved ones. Where in the Constitution does it say that the rights of ass holes take precedence over the rights of families ?

I'm NOT speaking for TT but these people scumbags don't have any less or any more rights than the grieving families.
It's a shame and a disgrace, but it is their right.

Would I like them to stop they're stupidity? You bet!
Would I like them to get their asses kicked! I sure would! (I'd buy a ticket and bring popcorn for everyone)
Would you go to jail for assault if you stomped one, or all of them to jello? Yes, you would.

What I would really like to see is 2000 people show up at one of their funerals and mock them...but normal folks just don't do that out of common decency that is all too uncommon.
These dirtbags just aren't normal.

As noted, defending the right to free speech is easy when you agree with the speaker.
Defending nazis, muslims, the KKK, rappers, black panthers and liberals is tougher because they are wrong.