http://free2think.org/forum/viewtopic.p ... &sk=t&sd=a
The plaintiffs in the case are Atheists of Florida, Inc. and EllenBeth Wachs, who currently serves as the Vice-President of the organization. The defendants are the City of Lakeland and Mayor Gow Fields. The attorney for Atheists of Florida is Eric O. Husby, Esq., of the Law Office of Eric O. Husby, P.A. in Tampa, Florida.
The atheist non-profit organization filed the lawsuit last year in the United States District Court in Tampa demanding an end to the defendants’ unconstitutional practice of holding prayer rituals at the start of Lakeland City Commission meetings. The atheists reasonably asked that the unconstitutional and unfair practice, which for years was performed entirely by evangelical clergy, be replaced with a moment of seated silence, which would allow all persons in attendance to pray or not, as they saw fit.
Several days before Wachs was to be questioned in her deposition by the city’s attorneys in the prayer lawsuit, Wachs, a retired attorney, was served with a curiously-timed warrant and abruptly arrested for allegedly "misrepresenting self as qualified to practice law". On March 3, over a dozen sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officials, many garbed in SWAT style para-military gear, descended on her home in unmarked vehicles, arrested Ms. Wachs, and searched her home. Two bearded officials in SWAT gear held her two retail employees at gunpoint and for several hours unidentified agents proceeded to systematically tear apart her house, including searching her cars and employees’ cars and belongings. Agents seized Wachs’ personal and business computers, cell phone, documents and other items.
Noteworthy, among the three identified in the arrest affidavit was Mayor Gow Fields, one of the named defendants in Ms. Wachs’ prayer lawsuit.
Ms. Wachs, a Polk County resident, had recently requested information through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from Judd’s Sheriff’s office concerning tax-payer property and funds involved with his media publicized gifting of jail basketball goals to eight area churches. Evidence obtained by the request, which had been provided by Gibson, showed that the sheriff’s office credit card was used in Judd’s project. [...] Not surprisingly, agents searching Ms. Wachs’ home seized all inflammatory documents against Judd including copies of the sheriff’s office credit card receipts.
