Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
November-December 1999 – It wasn’t for grand larceny, possession of cocaine, or assault and battery. In August a Christian college student began serving a six-month jail sentence for simply sharing the gospel and speaking the truth about abortion on a high school campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, before school started.
Liberty University student John Reyes, who is represented by the AFA Center for Law & Policy (CLP), went with 150 other college students to the E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg on November 10, 1997. In front of the school, the group prayed, sang, handed out gospel tracts and counseled with students about alternatives to abortion.
School officials told the group to leave immediately. However, according to court records, because school personnel never identified themselves as E.C. Glass officials, the Christians refused to go. When police arrived and asked the protesters to leave, Reyes and the others complied.
Later, however, prosecutors employed an obscure and little-used legal mechanism, obtaining a grand jury indictment against Reyes. He was convicted of trespass, even though some 45 police officers at the scene testified that he and the other demonstrators were well-behaved, orderly and promptly obeyed when asked to leave. (The original indictment contained three counts. On two of them – failure to obtain a permit and disorderly conduct – Reyes was found not guilty.)
Stephen M. Crampton, chief counsel for CLP, said trespass under Virginia law required a specific intent to violate the law, or knowledge that one is on another’s property without permission. “John did not violate either aspect of Virginia law. Until the police asked him to move, John thought he was on public property, since he was standing on the street sidewalk,” Crampton said.
Remarkably, he added, Reyes’ harsh sentence was imposed despite the fact that the police did not arrest or even cite anyone at the scene. Prosecutors said afterward that the convictions and sentence sent the “correct message” to future protesters.
“What message is that? Is it that Christians who dare to share the gospel at or near government schools will go to jail?” Crampton said. “The harsh sentence meted out against John for simple trespass is unprecedented.”
According to court records, Judge Richard S. Miller, who sentenced Reyes, has allowed individuals convicted of grand larceny, possession of cocaine, and assault and battery to serve no jail time. Others convicted of felony hit and run and felony escape, assault and battery received only three months’ jail time from Judge Miller.
“Apparently it would have been better had John been selling crack cocaine – presumably he would have received a lighter sentence,” said Michael J. DePrimo, staff attorney for CLP. 
