Reply #57: Your stance is quite clear. But the neighbor's complaint was WHY she was arrested.

[madfloridian]

It took a long time for him to get the proper ears in state leadership to listen enough to get the swat team and all that power there.

However here is more on the lawyer part...there is no law. And if a law saying annoying neighbors existed....the jails would be full.

I gather none of that bothers you very much...the swat team, the many patrol cars, the destruction of the computer, and tearing up of her house?

Here is what I wrote previously:

"Let’s see if we have this straight. EllenBeth Wachs, a noted Polk County atheist who belongs to Atheists of Florida, was arrested in early March, charged with practicing law without a license, simply based upon the say-so of three individuals with whom she has clashed: Gow Fields, the mayor of Lakeland; Ann Gibson, legal affairs coordinator for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office; and Stacy Butterfield, a board member of the homeowners association in the subdivision where Wachs resides. Butterfield also happens to be the director of finance and accounting for the Board of County Commissioners.

...Her computer and other personal effects were confiscated. On her computer was the information and other documentation that was to be used during the deposition. Without that data, the deposition had to be rescheduled."


But wait for this part:

"But a private dispute between Wachs and the homeowners’ association in her subdivision, of which Butterfield is an officer? How did that appear on the state attorney’s radar screen, and why?

Without question, Wachs and Atheists of Florida are a thorn in the side of a number of people and institutions. Her organization advocates an unpopular belief and does so vociferously. That she chooses to exercise her right to freedom of speech and does so in a manner in which she was educated, trained and once licensed to practice (in Pennsylvania), is her right.

As is her right to use the term “Esq.” or “esquire,” since no Florida law forbids its use by anyone not licensed to practice law in the state. Hanging a criminal prosecution on the use of this word and the impressions of others is, well, to put it bluntly, a little flimsy."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1051155&mesg_id=1052002