Trespassing charge dismissed for woman arrested at church

[Ian David]

Trespassing charge dismissed for woman arrested at church

Jan Bellamy, Staff Writer
517.437.6014



Karolyn Caskey will not be prosecuted on trespassing charges following her arrest during Sunday services June 17 at Allen Baptist Church. Caskey was removed in handcuffs by a Hillsdale County Sheriff’s Department deputy responding to a call from the church.

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“To be arrested for trespassing, you need prior notice, which Caskey did not have,” Bianchi explained to Caskey and a group of her supporters following the conference and dismissal of the charge.

Even though Allen Baptist Church had notified Caskey in December that her membership was in jeopardy, the process of revoking her membership was never completed, said Bianchi.

<snip>

Caskey has argued that even if the Allen Baptist Church had followed its own constitution and canceled her membership conclusively, she should still be able to attend church services as a non–member. Caskey considers this a right within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution.

More:
http://www.hillsdale.net/stories/071107/news_20070711007.shtml

[Toasterlad]

1. That's Some Pretty Shitty Journalism

The article doesn't even mention why the church was dismissing her as a member in the first place. Seems like a big part of the story would be knowing what all the fuss was about. :wtf:

[Ian David]

2. You would think, wouldn't you? Did her membership check just bounce? n/t

[Ian David]

3. And now. the REST of the story...

Church Politics Send Woman to Jail

Last Sunday, Karolyn Caskey decided that since she just returned to town from her extended winter stay in Florida, she should attend church. She put on her Sunday best and arrived in time for Sunday services at Allen Baptist church in Allen, Michigan, a church she has been attending since 1959. But on Sunday, June 17, Karolyn Caskey became the victim of church politics.

As Mrs. Caskey told me in a recent phone conversation, the problem revolves around the hiring of a new minister for the independent Baptist church. After hiring the new minister, Pastor Jason Burrick, the church members noticed some immediate and troubling changes. “One of the first things he did was do away with all of the deacons and the officers of the church”, Caskey explained. She also shared that the business meetings of the church, once a place to fellowship and share ideas for the church, had become a dictatorship where no ideas were welcomed and silence was the rule. Pastor Burrick, whose Allen Baptist church job was his first, began to rule the church with an “iron fist” and consequently, “drove away members to neighboring churches in the area”.

After a heated argument with the remaining deacons, Pastor Burrick took control of the church accounts and book keeping. For Caskey, this was the final straw. She sought legal advice to determine what she could do protect her church. It was at this time that Mrs. Caskey was told, “This is against the church and church matters should be kept within the church.” After receiving a registered letter in December, forwarded to her winter-home in Florida, she was ordered to a church disciplinary meeting on December 27th. According to Mrs. Caskey, she contacted her lawyer and asked her to represent her in the meeting at the church. The meeting was not held, and through friends in the small town of Allen, Caskey was told that “they were going to try and dismiss me from the church.”

Having just returned from Florida in mid-June, Mrs. Caskey returned to church on the 17th of June and was approached by a deacon who asked her to step outside the church. According to Karolyn, “the deacon then asked me to please leave the church and told me I was not welcome here anymore”. When Caskey demanded to no why, the police were called and Karolyn Caskey was subsequently arrested for trespassing at the request of Pastor Jason Burrick.

More:
http://www.thecronline.com/blog/2007/06/church-politics-send-woman-to-jail



Also:


Woman arrested during church service
Pastor calls police after woman ignored notice that she wasn’t welcome anymore
By Jan Bellamy and Robin Boyle
Hillsdale Daily News

An Allen woman is protesting her arrest Sunday for trespassing at Allen Baptist Church.

<snip>

Burchardt said his deputy tried to avoid making an official arrest.

“The deputy pleaded with Caskey to leave, or he would have to arrest her,” said Burchardt

“She apparently responded, ‘You’ll just have to arrest me’.”

Because she refused an officer’s legal order to leave private property she was trespassing, Burchardt said.Despite Caskey’s difficulty moving due to replacement surgery on hips and knees, she was nevertheless handcuffed and taken out of the church.

<snip>

Caskey is not the only member to have received a letter from Pastor Jason Burrick and the congregation. Emmit Church, a former deacon at Allen Baptist and friend of Caskey, said he had been attending for about 16 years and was also asked to leave by the new pastor.

More:
http://www.hillsdale.net/stories/062007/news_20070620012.shtml


Also:

sometimes i hate the internet

There are days when I hate the internet. The same freedom that allows me to post allows others to do the same but what they write just drives me nuts sometimes. Here is a cached copy of a post by the folks at Slice.


<snip>

A 27-year-old pastor had an elderly member removed from a Sunday morning church service and arrested. The story is here. It seems that the pastor had been making big time changes in the church, just like Rick Warren suggests pastors do if they want to grow, including dismissing the entire deacon board and church officers. Then he took control of financial accounts. This guy was a man with a plan, and that plan didn’t include a 50-year, giving, faithful member of the church. This appalling story illustrates what happens when 20-somethings, armed with church growth manuals and their heads full of plans for greatness seize little churches that were once peaceful places of worship. Here is the testimony of the woman’s friend regarding the matter.

“As a personal friend of Karolyn Caskey I need to say that what happened to this wonderful senior lady is incredible. This lady is a giver and a doer, gives to you without asking, and will do for you without asking. She was the biggest supporter of this small church where she has been attending for 50 years. Despite all the problems and having been asked to leave the church, she decided to stay because this was her church. She was one of the highest members but this so called new pastor got rid of all the heads of the church, saying he will take care of all including the church money and sent most of the members letters asking them to leave the church. She was the one who put the most money in as a member, and when the church needed extra money for anything she was the one who gave it. She was the one paying for cable to this new P astorBurrick (if he can be called pastor, a 27 years old big overweight person who came to ruin this small but wonderful church that is turning into a cult. Poor Karolyn, at 71 years of age, with 2 hip and knees replacements, had to be humiliated, taking her out of the service in hand cuffs and taken to jail, all from the house of GOD. This man needs to be out of this church but the question is how to do it…

Sara Robison

Advice to Sara: Until enough of the congregation rises up regarding these issues, there’s no strategy or plan that will get you back your church. Walk out, shake the dust off your shoes and try to find an assembly where God and His Word are still honored. If you can’t find one, meet in a home and find some preaching on sites like sermonaudio.com. Just don’t stay and fight. If the rest of the church wants this kind of pastor, you just end up making unsavory headlines and ultimately shaming Christ publicly, as this pastor has done. There’s a time to leave a place that has sold out to church growth methods.

More:
http://rianniello.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-07-03T06%3A47%3A00-04%3A00

[wicket]

5. Looks like they proved her point

once a place to fellowship and share ideas for the church, had become a dictatorship where no ideas were welcomed and silence was the rule.

[noonwitch]

4. Hillsdale County is a strange place.

Hillsdale College had quite a scandal a few years back, when their President's daughter-in-law committed suicide-an investigation revealed that the President had been having an affair with her, his son's wife. The kicker is that it is a conservative school that takes absolutely no government funds. They are proud of this and feel that it reflects that they are an independent school.

There also was this weird incest case there a while back, where a young mother was found to have a whole bunch of kids by her own father, kids she started having as a teenager. It was so sad on the mother's part-she was 20 or so, and had been raised in some isolation from the rest of the world.

Rural Michigan can be as scary as the big city.

[Ian David]

6. How far is it from The Big Beaver Cooridoor? n/t