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On April 24, Judge
Paul Higginbotham found Pastor Ralph Ovadal guilty of criminal disorderly
conduct based on a short biblical message he preached to a lewd-acting,
taunting woman on the parking lot of the state-funded, state-run nude
beach near Mazomanie, Wisconsin. Prior to Pastor Ovadal's message, the
woman had been directing foul language at a young Christian man,
threatening to expose herself, and had done a lewd dance. By her own
courtroom testimony, the woman was on her way to strip naked at a beach
where she knew from past visits that hundreds of men and a number of
children would be present. Pastor Ovadal's message, which was a biblically
balanced rebuke coupled with a salvation message, was unaccompanied by any
physical action by Pastor Ovadal; and he did not follow the woman when she
left the parking lot. This has all been established by unchallenged
testimony and evidence in court. Tomorrow, May 29, Higginbotham will
sentence Pastor Ovadal in Court Room 323 in the City County Building (210
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Madison) at 1:30 PM.
In addition to handing down Pastor's sentence, Judge Higginbotham will
comment on a motion filed by Pastor Ovadal's attorney, James Donohoo. The
motion requests Higginbotham to vacate his decision and recuse himself
from the case based on the obvious bias and animus he exhibited during the
trial and in his written decision toward Pastor Ovadal and others who
protest the Mazo nude beach. It is telling that it took Mr. Donohoo, a
seasoned trial lawyer with twenty-eight years experience, thirty-three
pages to document the comments and actions of Judge Higginbotham which
clearly show he did not give Pastor Ovadal anywhere near a fair trial!
"Judge Higginbotham has labeled me an 'angry fundamentalist.'
He has declared my dearly held biblical beliefs to be 'truculent' and my
opposition to a tax-funded nude beach where children are paraded naked in
the presence of hundreds of naked adults to be 'captious.' Perhaps he
believes the Word of God is 'cruel' or 'savage' and that such an
abominable situation as Mazo Beach is a 'trivial thing,' and perhaps he
believes that I am wrong to stand upon the Word of God in resistance to
such a horrific situation; but tens of thousands of Wisconsinites do not.
With respect to my case, Judge Higginbotham has acted more like a partisan
politician than an impartial adjudicator of the law; and that is why we
have filed the motion which he will comment upon today. It will be
interesting to see what he has to say in the face of such overwhelming
evidence of his own misconduct on the bench just as it will be interesting
to see what sort of sentence he will hand down to me. Whatever he says and
does, it will not affect our determination to put an end to the lewd beach
at Mazo. My duty as a minister of the gospel, my obligation as an American
to defend the First Amendment, and my responsibility as a man to the
children of this state and this nation dictate that this fight must
continue until God vindicates the right and the victory is won."
—Pastor Ralph Ovadal, Director, Wisconsin Christians United
Copies of Attorney Donohoo's brief and motion are
available to the media upon request in advance of the hearing via fax or
mail and will be available at the hearing as well.
Related article: If this is justice, Christians are in big trouble.
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