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| Paul Kuehnel - YDR |
| Evan Murch, 9, of Red House, Va., one of nine children of the Rev. Bruce Evan Murch, preaches against abortion in front of District Justice Linda Williams’ office in York on Tuesday. |
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Grove, 56, the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Springfield Township, faces charges of disorderly conduct and harassment. York Police also cited him with violating two city ordinances: failing to obtain a permit for the parade and joining the parade without permission.
Police allege the signs, which depicted chopped-up fetuses, alarmed some spectators along the parade route and that a disturbance nearly broke out. Police said Grove and his supporters failed to disperse when ordered by officers.
District Justice Linda Williams ordered Tuesday that Grove’s case be sent to court.
Grove’s supporters ended up on the sidewalk during the hearing Tuesday because the courtroom was full. A fire official determined the lobby was too crowded for people to wait inside and a sheriff’s deputy asked the group to move outside, which angered some of Grove’s supporters.
So the roughly two dozen supporters stood on the sidewalk with the same type of anti-abortion signs — showing bloody, dismembered fetuses — that resulted in charges being filed against Grove. Some yelled at cars as they passed.
“We have no fear here this morning,” Grove friend Bruce Evan Murch of Red House, Va., said.
The reason: Grove and his supporters received a temporary restraining order from a federal judge against York Police and the city.
Federal judge rules signs permitted
U.S. District Judge Sylvia H. Rambo ruled Monday that Grove and his supporters are allowed to carry their signs depicting aborted fetuses during demonstrations on the city’s sidewalks.
Rambo said her order does not prohibit the group from being arrested or cited if they violate city ordinances or state code.
Donald Hoyt, the city’s solicitor, said Rambo’s ruling was “much ado about nothing.” The city thought at first that Grove wanted to have a parade, but Grove planned to have fewer than a dozen people protesting abortions on the city streets.
The restraining order came the same day as Grove and his supporters filed a federal lawsuit against the City of York, York Police and five of its officers over the Halloween parade.
The lawsuit alleges the following:
Protesters said they complied with police when ordered to get off the street. While at the intersection of Pine and Market streets, several people in the crowd began arguing and shouting at the protesters.
While police watched, several people in the crowd tried to wrap large sheets around the protesters, to trap them within a circle and cover their signs. Protesters said police stood by and watched.
York Police Sgt. Russell Tschopp allegedly told the protesters that they could continue on the parade route without the abortion signs. The protesters did walk the parade route later after police confiscated the signs.
“The court agrees with Plaintiffs that this sort of conduct ‘smacks of ... content motive(ated)’ behavior which is prohibited by the First Amendment,” Rambo wrote in the temporary injunction order. “If the Plaintiffs’ allegations are proven true, then Plaintiffs certainly have a high likelihood of success on the merits.”
Police allege what happened
Police give a different account of what happened that day in an affidavit of probable cause. Tschopp wrote that he became aware of the protesters after they had walked about 10 blocks. He told other officers to get them off of the street because the group did not have a permit to be in the parade.
After officers moved the group onto a sidewalk, Tschopp told Grove that he was violating city parade ordinances and asked him to stop his parade.
Tschopp also told Grove that the photos of the nearly full-term, aborted fetuses were alarming people. The behavior of the protesters had incited several people, which resulted in a shouting match.
“It was fixing to be a fight,” Tschopp said outside of the courtroom on Tuesday.
One woman in the crowd, Sherry Bosserman of Red Lion, complained that her daughter was struck in the head by one of the protesters’ signs.
Tschopp said he offered to let Grove continue his walk if he surrendered his signs. Tschopp said he would return the signs at the end of the parade. That was not acceptable to Grove, according to the affidavit.
Police later confiscated the signs and ordered the group not to walk down the parade route and to disperse. Police said the group did not follow orders and continued down the parade route.
“It should be noted that the Reverend Grove’s attitude and demeanor during my encounter was extremely disorderly, confrontational and belligerent,” Tschopp wrote in the affidavit. “He even descended to name calling and referred to this officer as a ‘damn communist’ at least once.”
Complaint filed against deputy sheriff
Grove said he wasn’t “too surprised” by Williams’ ruling. He didn’t present any evidence on his behalf.
Grove pulled out a letter from the state Department of Transportation, saying that the city did not obtain a permit for its Halloween parade. Hoyt, however, says that the city doesn’t need a permit because Market Street is under local control.
After the hearing, Grove and his followers marched over to the York County District Attorney’s Office to file a complaint against a sheriff’s deputy. The deputy asked Grove’s supporters to leave because the district justice’s office was too crowded.
Daniel Ustinovich of Jackson Township alleged that he was threatened by the deputy.
Formal private complaints are filed in the district attorney’s office if the alleged offense is a misdemeanor or a felony. Summary complaints are lodged before a district justice in the area where the purported infraction occurred.
First Deputy District Attorney Timothy Barker said his office will review the allegations and the complaint will be approved, rejected or referred to an investigative authority for more information.
State law requires the district attorney’s office to act on the complaint “without unreasonable delay” but sets no specific timeline.
Barker, who had not seen Tuesday’s complaints, said the release of his office’s decision “depends on the path it takes.”
“If it requires further investigation, reports or verification, it is going to take longer,” he said.
Daily Record staff writer Rick Lee contributed to this report.
Reach Teresa Ann Boeckel at 771-2031 or teresa@ydr.com.
