Related
Translate
Previous entry: Members of SoCal religious-based store arrested after fracas
Next entry: Cult fear for snatched girl
Get RNB via RSS
 |
RNB's RSS feed What is this? |
Get RNB via Email
 |
 Subscribe by Email What is this? |
Follow: Twitter
Most Popular
This Week:
- Guyana’s Jonestown suicide site gets plaque
- Scientology practices ‘putting people at risk’
- Recession: Muslim schools in UK under threat of closure
- World’s oldest ocean-going passenger ship, ministry ship Doulos, to stop sailing
- Scientology’s feet held to the fire in Australia: Struggle between a church and the state
- 1-year prison term for man who participated in cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites
- Australian police take up complaints about Scientology
- Born in U.S., a Radical Cleric Inspires Terror
- ‘World’s biggest animal sacrifice’ begins
- Pakistan Militants Bomb CD Shop For Selling ‘Jesus Film’
7 arrested at Piecemakers store
More articles on this topic: Piecemakers‘We felt violated. It was like an invasion,’ a sales clerk says.
COSTA MESA – Seven members of the Piecemakers Country Store – a religious-based, commune-type business in Costa Mesa – were arrested today after dozens of the workers refused to allow Orange County health officials to inspect the group’s restaurant.
Health Agency officials, district attorney’s investigators and Costa Mesa police officers arrived with an inspection warrant about 11:30 a.m. Floor manager Linda Ryan, who said she was speaking for the Piecemakers, would not allow the authorities to enter the Adams Street business.
The leading officer lightly pushed Ryan aside at the front door and started making his way to the kitchen to open the back door, Ryan said, and about 20 members of the group stood in his way. The officer forced his way through all of them, opened the back door, and let the delegation in, Ryan said.
“We felt violated,” sales clerk Joanna Nelson said. “It was like an invasion.”
Sometime after the inspection began, Piecemakers founder and leader Marie Kolasinski tried to remove an inspector’s thermometer from a pot of soup. A fracas broke out, Kolasinski said, and five women and two men were arrested.
District attorney’s spokesman Mark Macaulay identified the people arrested and the charges:
• Kathleen Louise Needham, obstruction of justice.
• Douglas Dorsey Follette, assault.
• Kolasinski, assault on a heath inspector.
• Deborah Lindsey Scherfee, obstruction of justice.
• Kerry Lyn Parker, assault.
• Judy Marie Hageer, battery.
• John Fredrick Ready, obstruction.
The inspection warrant was acquired after Piecemakers employees denied access to the kitchen Oct. 6, Health Agency spokesman Howard Sutter said.
Piecemakers’ food service permit allows the group to sell only pre-packaged food, Sutter said. The group prepares and sells hot food at the business.
“This is all about freedom to conduct our lives, serve the Lord, make a living and service the community without government intervention,” Nelson said. “God founded this business, and that’s why we take a stand.”
Members of the group say they share profits and ownership of the business, which mainly sells quilting supplies. Piecemakers, founded in 1978, also runs a hair salon and offers custom interior design and construction services.
The group has had a history of trouble with the county. Members once settled two libel lawsuits filed against them by individual county health inspectors.
What You Can Do From Here
|
Read More Articles On These Topics
Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article
Subscribe
Read Another Article
Previous entry: Members of SoCal religious-based store arrested after fracas Next entry: Cult fear for snatched girl
RNB Homepage with latest headlinesFind Related Information
Find Related Books
|
Share This Article
To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:
