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Court has just begun in the County vs. Godspeak hearing. I'll be tweeting here in case you want to follow along. Today Pastor McCoy will have to answer why he shouldn't be held in contempt for violating a restraining order prohibiting him from holding services.
The county is also asking the judge to have the sheriff's office close the Godspeak property.
Attorney Jaclyn Smith, for the county, says an additional 10 people in the county have died since the restraining order was granted Friday.
She says in light of McCoy's conduct in holding services, the courts must now take action.
Godspeak's attorney Robert Tyler is discussing Japanese internment and comparing it to the pandemic, saying we're using fear to guide us.
He says the facts have to be tried before any punishment should be handed out.
He says it's important for the church to be indoors because the church members have had their lives threatened. Also, at least one member of the church staff has a condition in which sunlight can be detrimental to their health.
He also says the church plans on filing its own complaints against the county and state.
He says he believes last Friday's decision to grant the restraining order violates the first amendment.
And he says going forward with an emergency order is wrong when there is no emergency.
Smith is speaking again and saying this is not an appeal of Friday's decision.
(She's difficult to hear so I apologize if I'm going slow for her...)
Tyler said they asked for a continuance of the restraining order because they had only about 5 hours to prepare.
And is asking for more time for the entire case because they have to get all their experts and collect all the data they'll need.
The judge says he is not inclined to order the sheriff to lock the church up
and asks Smith again if she has anything more to say about that.
She says she is asking the sheriff have authority to stop people from entering based on future action, if I understand her -- again, she is difficult to hear.
The judge denies the request to have the sheriff's office close the property.
He says we depend on the sheriff to keep the peace in situations like this and should this escalate, he would feel more comfortable if the sheriff were neutral.
As for the "apparent violation" of the injuntion the judge asks Tyler to address the hearing on it set for Friday.
Tyler asks the hearing be put off and be held in conjunction with the full injunction hearing at the end of the month. Smith says she would approve except that the church has indicated it plans to hold services this weekend.
Smith says if this were a BLM protest, the county would have no problem with it. His argument seems to be the guidelines like distancing and mask wearing are/were not enforced for protests but are here.
To stop the church to stop worshipping before a full hearing, is wrong, Tyler says.
Smith says what they're here to address is McCoy's outright disregard of the law.
McCoy's conduct is jeopardizing all the other churches and schools that can't open, etc. "It's restraining the liberty of everybody else," she says.
The church's attorney now talks about how contact tracing shows more people seem to contract COVID via small family gatherings than church
He says the orders haven't been passed through the legislator and hasn't been tried in a court of law. It's all the governor, he says.
