Local Classifieds - Bluffton News Banner

AREA/STATE
Wells Circuit Court
Civil Cases
Decree of dissolution of
marriage filed terminating
the marriage between Krystle
G. Crottier and Bradley
M. Crottier.
Complaint for damages
originally filed by Robert
and Anicka West of Bluffton
against Edgar Recinos
of Bluffton dismissed. The
complaint related to an Oct.
7 accident on Bond Street
in which Robert West was
injured.
Judgment of $49,698.87
and decree of foreclosure
filed in favor of Wells Fargo
Bank against the Estate of
Kenneth M. Austin. The
property is located at 830
Mulberry Street, Bluffton.
Complaint for damages
in an amount to be determined
filed by Richard
and Karen Gorrell of Leo
against Nathan Longenecker
of Ossian. The complaint
relates to an Aug. 6, 2010,
accident at 1000N-600E in
which Richard Gorrell was
injured.
Complaint on note in an
amount to be determined by
the court and to foreclose
mortgage filed by Federal
Home Loan Mortgage Corporation
against Jerry W.
and Christie A. Petzel of
Bluffton. The property is
located at 1451 McConnell
Drive, Bluffton.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $17,750.96
filed by Credit Control LLC
against Carol Townsend-
Boone of Keystone.
Wells Superior Court
Criminal Cases
Initial hearing of charges
against Tyler S. Landers, 28,
of Bluffton, filed. Landers
was charged with one count
each of operating a motor
vehicle without ever having
a license, failure to sign
vehicle registration/IFC,
(passenger) seat belt violation
and no insurance after
an officer from the Bluffton
Police Department performed
a traffic stop at Save
On Liquor North in Bluffton
on May 19. Status hearing
date set for June 4. Bail set
in the amount of $500.
Infractions
Richard Shannon, 20, of
Fort Wayne, driving while
suspended and speeding
55/35 on the 600 block of
North Jefferson Street in
Ossian on May 20.
Demetra Holmes, 43, of
Fort Wayne; driving while
suspended Jefferson Street
south of Davis Road in
Ossian on May 14.
Civil Cases
Release of judgment filed
in favor of Fred Rupel of
Bluffton who has settled his
account with MSW Capital.
Satisfaction of judgment
filed in favor of Laura L.
Thomas of Markle who has
settled her account with GE
Money Bank.
Default judgment of
$659.78 filed in favor of Client
Services against Sarah V.
Patch of Bluffton.
Default judgment of
$642.70 filed in favor of Client
Services against Eric W.
Dettmer of Bluffton.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $11,198.52
filed by Snow and Sauerteig
against Christopher J. Killingbeck
of Poneto.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $4,654.37
filed by LVNV Funding
against Jerry Reinhard of
Bluffton.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $2,235.64
filed by LVNV Funding
against Michael H. Moorefield
of Bluffton.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $1,487.75
filed by Dupont Hospital
against Mitchell A. Davis of
Poneto.
Complaint for payment
in the amount of $1,129.98
filed by Lutheran Hospital
against Edward M. Bowley
of Uniondale.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2012 • The News-Banner • Page 13
Resolving racial differences — with an attack at a restaurant
Police: Anti-racism group from Indiana found alleged white supremicists at an Illinois eatery, leaving some people seriously injured
Associated Press
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) —
Five men accused of attacking a
group of diners with hammers and
metal batons at a suburban Chicago
restaurant are in jail, though
the fight appears to be continuing
online as word spread that the
incident was apparently linked to
a feud between anti-racism groups
and white supremacists.
Elements of the two factions
have engaged in a cyber-war of
words since Saturday, when as
many as 18 people wearing hooded
sweatshirts and masks or scarves
stormed into the Ashford House in
Tinley Park. Investigators say the
alleged attackers targeted a group
of people they believed had ties to
a white supremacist organization.
Video of the minutes-long
fight shows a table being knocked
over, swinging arms and some
men holding up chairs to defend
themselves, Mayor Ed Zabrocki
said. Prosecutors said the fight
caused $15,000 in damage and
injured several people, including
three who were hospitalized and
received staples to their heads.
Those attacked said they
belonged to the Illinois European
Heritage Association, though at
least two were from out of state,
Tinley Park Police Chief Steven
Neubauer said.
“It’s like you have someone
from extreme left field and someone
from extreme right field come
to center field to fight — and
Tinley Park was center field,”
Zabrocki said.
On the website of the Hoosier
Anti-Racism Movement, there was
a plea for money to help defend
the “Tinley Park Five.” Emails
and Facebook messages sent to the
group by The Associated Press on
Tuesday weren’t returned, and neither
phone numbers nor a website
could by be found for the Illinois
European Heritage Association.
Another website, the Anti-Racist
Action Network, reported the
incident in a post that focused on
two of the alleged victims being
arrested. Tinley Park police confirmed
that two people were
arrested on charges unrelated to
the fight — a North Dakota resident
on a warrant for possession
of child pornography and a Texas
man accused of being a felon in
possession of a weapon.
And on Stormfront, a white
nationalist website, several posts
angrily denounced the alleged
attackers as “raving maniacs”
and “cowardly left wing thugs.”
Another right-wing group, White
Reference, reported that the “antiracist
terrorists” invaded the restaurant
as part of a “completely
unprovoked assault on at least 20
white nationalists gathered for an
economic summit.”
Mark Pitcavage, director of
Wells Court Docket
investigative research for the Anti-
Defamation League, which tracks
extremist groups, said there is a
history of confrontations between
anti-racist and white supremacist
groups. He said the ADL had seen
advertisements for a meeting of a
right-wing group at the restaurant.
“This has all been part of the
scene for decades. There is a long
history of antagonism between
these two groups,” he said. “We
obviously disapprove of the notion
you have to confront them. That is
positively counterproductive.”
The five suspects were arrested
shortly after the fight when Tinley
Park police pulled over a red
Dodge Neon, the same kind of car
witnesses told police the alleged
attackers left in. Prosecutors said
police recovered dark hooded
sweatshirts, scarves, gloves, a
knife and two expandable batons.
The arrested men include three
brothers — 20-year-old Dylan
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Sutherlin, 23-year-old Cody
Sutherlin and 33-year-old Jason
Sutherlin — along with 22-yearold
Alex Stuck and 26-year-old
John Tucker. All live in the Bloomington,
Ind., area.
They were formally charged in
Cook County this week on felony
charges of mob action, aggravated
battery and criminal damage to
property. The men were ordered
held in lieu of between $175,000
and $250,000.
They were represented by the
county public defender’s office,
which declined to comment on
the charges. Listed phone numbers
for the brothers were disconnected,
while messages left at local
numbers listed for a John Tucker
weren’t returned.
Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for
the Cook County State’s Attorney’s
office, said prosecutors are
not characterizing the defendants
as “anti-racists.”
When scandal hits, congregations splinter, collapse or mend
By MICHAEL DAVIES
(Lafayette)
Journal and Courier
Diana Garland, dean
of the Baylor University
School of Social Work,
draws a sharp distinction
between sin and evil.
“All of us have the ability
to sin,” she said Thursday by
phone from a writer’s retreat
in Colorado, “but only some
of us have the power to do
evil.”
In Garland’s estimation,
whoever planted video
cameras inside the women’s
restroom at Sunrise Christian
Reformed Church was
guilty of an act of evil, a
depraved and reprehensible
violation of privacy that she
says should be “a wake-up
call” for Greater Lafayette.
“I suspect there are
people in your community
this morning looking at air
fresheners in bathroom stalls
and wondering, ‘Did we do
background checks on our
church leaders?’ ”
Questions cascade as the
community considers the
May 10 arrest of 55-yearold
Robert Lyzenga, spiritual
leader at Sunrise. Lyzenga,
known to congregants
as Pastor Bob, was booked
on suspicion of voyeurism,
a Class D felony. He was
released on bond the same
day.
Even in an age of prolific
and seemingly inescapable
sexual scandal, the notion
of a video predator peeking
in on innocents in a local
church restroom is downright
shocking. Beyond the
ick factor, there is a breach
of basic human decency to
consider, not to mention the
impropriety of a Peeping
Tom within steps of a holy
sanctuary. That the overseer
of that holy sanctuary
was arrested on suspicion of
being a Peeping Tom thrust
the story onto Page One last
Tuesday, even as lay leaders
at Sunrise worked to minimize
the damage.
The twisted desire of
someone — quite possibly
someone who is an authority
figure — to view women
and girls at their most vulnerable
moment has rocked
the foundation of an entire
faith community, and the
ripples have gone well
beyond the southside church
at 909 E. County Road 500
South.
According to records
held at the Michigan headquarters
for the Christian
Reformed Church of North
America, Sunrise Christian
has a congregation of 227
members. Seventy-seven
families call it their spiritual
home.
Local and national experts
in the field of congregational
life believe the voyeurism
at Sunrise may have devastating
and long-term effects
on the church, based on the
details that have come forward
to date. Garland, a
researcher in clergy sexual
misconduct, expects “an
incredible impact,” given
the possible breach of trust.
“And if there is one person
that people trust, it is their
religious leader,” she said.
Trust is the mortar of all
relationships. When it is
compromised, things often
crack and crumble.
Normal congregational
life at Sunrise was suspended
when a female congregant
triggered a police
investigation. In a bathroom
stall she discovered a fake
air freshener that contained
a suspicious device. Court
documents reveal that two
cameras in total spied upon
women, and that a video
trail led police to Lyzenga.
“It’s very difficult
when you have your trust
betrayed, especially if you
felt that person is an important
link to your faith,” said
Purdue University’s Daniel
Olson, an associate professor
whose expertise is the
sociology of religion.
“A lot of people think
religion should be held to a
higher standard, that people
should trust each other and
be motivated by love, not
voyeurism. That’s a violation
of expectations that can
cause more problems for
some than others. There may
be people who will never
go to that church again.
There may be people who
will never go to any church
again.”
Anson Shupe is a sociologist
at Indiana University
Purdue University Fort
Wayne, whose primary
research has been studying
the aftershock and ramifications
of clergy misdeeds.
Amazon.com’s description
of “Bad Pastors: Clergy Misconduct
in Modern America,”
a book he co-edited,
ticks off the kind of stories
that have become all too
common: “Child-molesting
priests, embezzled church
treasures, philandering
ministers and rabbis, even
church-endorsed pyramid
schemes that defraud gullible
parishioners of millions
of dollars.”
In 1995, Shupe coined the
term “clergy malfeasance”
to describe the unethical and
illegal activity of spiritual
leaders.
When a scandal hits a
congregation, “The kind of
church it is predicts what
will happen,” he said by
phone Thursday. “In hierarchical
environments, like
the Catholic Church, scandal
is handled better because
they have a more established
tradition and political structure.”
As an example, errant
priests are replaced by bishops,
to whom they report.
“But in what I call congregational
churches, especially
ones started as storefronts,
the local minister
has no one to account to; he
runs the church as his personal
fiefdom. When there
is a scandal, it’s disastrous
because the only thing holding
the church together is
that person’s charisma. Once
that’s damaged, he’s spoiled
goods.”
What argues for Sunrise
weathering this storm is
the presence of strong lay
leadership. A long-standing
church council consists of
four elders and four deacons.
The council suspended Lyzenga
from all church duties
on May 11.
“I attended a service at
Sunrise several years ago,”
Purdue’s Olson said. “A
high percentage of congregants
go there because of the
church’s denomination. And
the reason people go to a
particular church will affect
the outcome of scandal.
“If people go for the personality
of the preacher and
he does something morally
reprehensible, a lot of
people are going to leave.
But if they’re there for other
reasons, they may be able to
get over it.”
Based in Grand Rapids,
Mich., the Dutch-influenced
Christian Reformed Church
of North America has more
than 1,000 affiliated congregations
in the United States
and Canada. Its interim
executive director, the Rev.
Joel Boot, indicated on Friday
that an array of services
has been offered to the Sunrise
congregation, including
the use of a specially trained
national pastor “to step in,
at their request, for a time
of their determining — six,
eight, 12 months, whatever
that might be — to shepherd
the congregation through
whatever difficulty it might
be facing,”
The denominational
body has an agency known
as Safe Church, “available
on request to assist anyone
who feels he or she has been
a victim of crime ... in finding
help or legal recourse or
whatever else may be applicable
in that situation,” Boot
said in a Friday phone interview.
It is the denomination’s
position that ultimate decisions
about the future of a
congregation rest with local
lay leaders. “We are not
top down, but the service
we provide is,” Boot said.
“That’s how we operate.
The request and the authority
remain with the local
council.”
In Boot’s experience,
congregations can survive
a jolt like that suffered by
Sunrise.
“It comes with no guarantees,”
he said. “But I have
seen it happen. I think by the
grace of God ... it can actually
enable a congregation
to become stronger. You’d
never wish anything like this
on any congregation, but in
experiencing trauma like
this and pulling together and
praying together, there is the
possibility and even probability
that the congregation
will be stronger on the other
side.”
———
This story was provided
to the News-Banner by the
Hoosier State Press Association’s
Information Network.
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