HolyCoast: Department of Justice Ends Prosecution of Pro-Life Counselor
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Department of Justice Ends Prosecution of Pro-Life Counselor

And pays her a bunch of money too:
The Department of Justice has given up its bid to prosecute a pro-life counselor and agreed to pay her $120,000 in a case a judge said never should have been brought.

Mary Susan Pine, who stands outside abortion clinics and advises women not to have the procedure, was accused of blocking a car from entering a Florida abortion clinic in 2009. In December, a judge threw out the case, in which the government sought $10,000 in fines and a permanent injunction barring Pine from counseling women outside the Presidential Women's Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. The government had been appealing the ruling until it was announced Monday it would no longer pursue the case.

Pine's lawyer said she was a victim of a politically-driven prosecution.

"It is irresponsible for the U.S. Department of Justice to place politics above principle when deciding to prosecute, and thus attempt to silence, a pro-life sidewalk counselor without any evidence of wrongdoing," Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement. "When the nation’s highest law enforcement officer files suit against any citizen, the suit must be based on the law coupled with compelling evidence. Anything less is an abuse of the high office."

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice defended prosecution decision as "based on the facts presented during our investigations and the applicable federal laws." In Pine's case, "the department made a decision to settle with the defendant rather than continue with costly litigation."
Because they weren't going to win this. Politically motivated prosecutions is all the DOJ has done since Eric Holder took over. It's time they got slapped down.

2 comments:

Larry said...

"The Department of Justice has given up its bid..."

"The case, in which the government sought..."

"The government had been appealing..."

"The department made a decision..."

I'd love to see the media demand that a name and a face be put to these decisions for once. Departments don't make decisions, people do.

Who are these people?

Just as its human nature to become careless, irresponsible and even act dangerously when shielded in the anonymity of an automobile, bureaucrats display the same characteristics when their identities are unknown –safe in the knowledge that their neighbors have no idea that they live next door to a monster.

Mikey J said...

If the DOJ was so sure that they'd win the suit, why did they pay her to go away?