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Members of Westboro church fail to post bonds in Md.

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 6, 2008 by Brendan Kearney

Two members of the Westboro Baptist Church ordered to pay $5 million for protesting a U.S. Marine's funeral have not posted the bonds necessary to stay collection of the jury award against them pending appeal.

On April 3, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett granted Shirley L. Phelps-Roper's and Rebekah A. Phelps-Davis' motion to postpone payment of the verdict contingent upon their posting $125,000 and $100,000 bonds, respectively. Bennett also placed a lien on the properties of the church and its founder, Pastor Fred W. Phelps Sr.

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At the time, the sisters argued for far lesser bond amounts, and Phelps-Roper indicated she would not be able to offer such collateral to the court. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the deadline imposed by Bennett, the sisters had not posted the bonds, according to court records.

Sean E. Summers, an attorney for plaintiff Albert Snyder, said the sisters' appeal of Bennett's ruling on their motion to stay made it unlikely they would put up the cash Monday.

"It would be counterintuitive to do that if they were going to post the money," Summers said. "It's hard to cry poor to the 4th Circuit if they've already paid the money."

Phelps-Roper confirmed her non-compliance with the terms of Bennett's order granting stay and discounted this portion of the proceedings.

"All this collection stuff, it's a lot of fluffy talk," she said. "If I don't have no $5 million, you can't take no $5 million."

Searching for assets

Snyder's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed in Iraq in March 2006. Westboro members demonstrated at his funeral, held a week later in Westminster, with placards that said "Semper Fi Fags" and "You're Going to Hell." Snyder sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a federal jury sided with him in October.

The church protests military funerals nationwide, motivated by a belief that the U.S.' tolerance of sin -- including homosexuality -- has caused American soldiers to die in Iraq and other misfortune to befall Americans domestically.

Summers said he will now file a motion with Bennett to execute on the sisters' property -- houses and small-balance bank accounts, according to their submissions to the court. But until Bennett rules on that motion and the Richmond appellate court rules on the appeal of Bennett's original ruling on the motion to stay, that property is safe.

"It's not going to happen immediately," Summers said. "The wheels of justice turn, but they turn slow."

Discovery regarding the defendants' assets is also in order, Summers said, since church members maintain a rigorous picket schedule, regularly crisscrossing the country with scheduled trips to Hawaii and China later this year, yet appear to have just a few hundred dollars in their bank accounts.

"I certainly don't have money to travel around the world like that," Summers said. "We'll go asset-searching and figure out what they have."

When asked if she could produce records of her travel purchases, Phelps-Roper said that is not her responsibility.

"Hell no! That's not my burden. That's not my job," she said. "If you can catch my money somewhere, the little bit that I earn, if you think you can get your hands on any of that while I'm raising my children and serving my God, good luck!"

Summers also said at least part of each woman's house might be protected by the Kansas Homestead Act and that retirement accounts are generally off limits, as well.

Phelps-Roper objected to any insinuation that she and her sister have not been honest with the court, saying she is "not treasuring up anything on this earth."

"Why do you think we don't have any money in the bank?" she asked. "We spent it serving God."

Members of Westboro church fail to post bonds in Md.

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 6, 2008 by Brendan Kearney

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