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Ganas community leader sues woman he claims shot him

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday October 8, 2008

Leader of Staten Island commune files civil suit against woman he claims shot him

He’s lived in fear since her acquittal.
Today the leader of a Staten Island commune announced he has filed a $20 million civil suit against the woman he claims shot him six times at point blank range.
Jeff Gross made the announcement during a press conference outside state Supreme Court in St. George this morning, two months after a jury found 45-year-old former Ganas member Rebekah Johnson not guilty of counts of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and attempted grand larceny in the second degree.
“I’m dealing with this by seeking the remedies that are still available to me,” Gross said today. “Rebekah Johnson shot me six times… there’s not a doubt in my mind. She stalked and harassed me for two years.”
Mark Gimpel, Gross’ attorney, blamed trial judge Justice Robert J. Collini for “egregiously bad evidentiary rulings.” Gimpel cited Collini’s decisions to exclude a target riddled with bullets found in Ms. Johnson’s apartment and “all evidence from a two-year campaign of stalking and harassment.”
Gross also called on prosecutors in Philadelphia to charge Ms. Johnson for the AK-47 assault rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition police found under a futon in her apartment there, according to a report they filed.
Pennsylvania authorities never charged her with weapons possession because it’s legal to own a gun — assault weapons included — in that state.
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- Source: Leader of Staten Island commune files civil suit against woman he claims shot him, Staten Island Advance (New York, USA), Oct. 8, 2008 — Summarized by Religion News Blog