Free Republic

Frederick McLean is one of the most-wanted fugitives in the United States, charged with 17 counts of child sexual abuse in California. Law enforcement sources say that when a victim’s family confronted McLean in 2004, he allegedly confessed. But before he could be arrested, McLean fled. Snip His role in the church also became a matter of legal controversy. Last year, some victims’ families filed suit against the Jehovah’s Witnesses, alleging that both McLean’s local congregation and the church’s national headquarters, the Watchtower Society, “knew, or should have known, that Frederick McLean was a pedophile.” Snip The Jehovah's Witnesses recently...

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - A woman who used a butcher knife to beat a Jehovah's Witness who knocked on her door on Christmas Day was sentenced to three months in jail. Cathy Infusino, 52, was also ordered Thursday to spend three months in a work program and serve three years of probation. She pleaded no contest to assault with a deadly weapon. Infusino was paranoid and was being harassed by neighbors at the time of the attack, said her lawyer LeRue Grim. "She wasn't mentally well enough to understand the situation," Grim said. "She thought someone was trying to harm...

Moscow bans Jehovah's Witnesses A Russian court has barred Jehovah's Witnesses from operating in the capital, Moscow. The court ruled that group's practices broke up families, encouraged suicide and threatened its members' health by not allowing blood transfusions. Lawyers for the group said the ruling was a step back for democracy and was reminiscent of Soviet rule. They said they would appeal the verdict both in Russia and to the European Court of Human Rights. "Religious minorities are often a litmus test for where a society is going... this is an ominous signal," the group's lawyer, John Burns, said. In...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Constitution guarantees religious groups, politicians, Girl Scouts and others the right to knock on their neighbors' doors without stopping at town hall for permission, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a broad endorsement of free speech rights. By a vote of 8-1 the high court struck down an Ohio village's law that required anyone going door to door to register with authorities and carry a permit. Violators could be fined $100. "It is offensive, not only to the values protected by the First Amendment but to the very notion of a free society, that in the...