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Roving Evangelist Cleared of Charges
More articles on this topic: James GilesIndiana Printing & Publishing, Jan. 8, 2003
http://www.zwire.com/
CHAUNCEY ROSS
A roving evangelist was within his rights 15 months ago when he loudly preached an acerbic message to students in the Oak Grove at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an Indiana County judge has ruled.
James Gilles, 40, of Evansville, Ind., has been cleared by Judge Gregory Olson of several counts of disorderly conduct and additional charges of defiant trespass and failure of disorderly persons to disperse.
Gilles’ first-amendment right to free speech outweighed a campus police officer’s charge that Gilles annoyed or inconvenienced people in the Oak Grove on Oct. 5, 2001, Olson ruled.
Along with reviewing the transcript of a preliminary hearing, Olson watched a videotape of Gilles’ preaching, his exchange of insults with several students and his eventual clash with campus police Sgt. Gregory Davis.
In his discourse that day, Gilles claimed that Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are damned to hell. He called fraternities “havens and hideouts for drunken … devils” and said people in the crowd were communists or homosexuals.
But Gilles’ preaching didn’t fall within the few, narrow categories of unprotected speech, such as obscenity, threats and inciting others to unlawful actions, Olson ruled.
Based on state Supreme Court opinions, Olson decided that Gilles’ speech was protected and could not be suppressed by the disorderly-conduct law.
“I knew that if anybody had seen a videotape or listened to an audiotape (of the confrontation), that it would turn out this way,” Gilles said Tuesday.
Gilles, of the Independent Pentecostal Church, said he and his family pack up a recreational vehicle and spend nine months a year visiting and preaching on college campuses. He usually meets the local police.
“About 80 percent of the officers are professionals,” Gilles said. “They recognize my right to be there, and some have protected me.
“But about 20 percent of campus security officers are like Sergeant Davis. They don’t care, they take it personally or there’s some spiritual conflict … I don’t know. They just behave that way.”
In 1988, Davis charged Gilles with disorderly conduct. That charge also was dismissed before it was brought to trial, according to Gilles.
In dismissing the trespassing charge, Olson wrote that it was unclear whether campus police ordered Gilles to leave the campus.
The videotape of Gilles’ confrontation with Davis showed Gilles claiming that he did not know he needed a permit from the university to preach in the Oak Grove. Davis abruptly arrested Gilles while they discussed whether or how Gilles could get a permit.
Olson dismissed the charges Dec. 27, issuing a 10-page order that ended with some advice.
Gilles “is now aware of IUP’s permitting procedures and requirements,” Olson wrote. If Gilles wants to find a defense for returning to IUP to preach on campus, “ignorance of IUP’s permitting process is not one of them.”
Gilles said he plans to preach again at IUP in the spring.
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