By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
 Jacqueline and John Stowers |
A lawsuit brought by an Ohio family whose children were held at SWAT-team gunpoint while their food supplies were confiscated is scheduled to go to trial this week.
John and Jackie Stowers are suing the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County General Health District over the raid on their "Manna Storehouse," an organic food coop that operated in LaGrange.
The Stowers and their 10 children and grandchildren were detained in one room of their home for six hours while sheriff's officers confiscated 60 boxes of fresh farm food, computers, phones and records, including USDA-certified meat from the children's mini-farm, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.
The state and county are accused of 119 counts including unlawful search and seizure, illegal use of state police power, taking of private property without compensation, failure to provide due process and equal protection and a multitude of constitutional rights violations, including the right to grow and eat one's own food and offer it to others.
WND reported when the case developed just about a year ago.
It was then when a state agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture pressured the Stowers to "sell" him a dozen eggs, then returned with a SWAT team to detain the family's children and confiscate food supplies.
The case brought by state and local authorities against the Stowers came to a head on Dec. 1, 2008, when police officers used SWAT-style tactics to burst into the home, hold family members including children at gunpoint and confiscate the family's personal food supply.
Two organizations, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and the Buckeye Institute's legal arm, the Center for Constitutional Law, initially started working to defend the family.
But now the family is on the offense, accusing the government agencies and their individuals of rights violations.
David Cox, an attorney for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund confirmed that nothing ever resulted for the family after the confiscation of the food.
There were no charges, "civil, criminal or otherwise," he said.
In an audio podcast posted online, Maurice Thompson of the Buckeye Institute said the family has run the Manna Storehouse, focusing mainly on organic supplies, for several years near Cleveland.
The confrontation began developing several years ago when local health officials demanded the family hold a retail food license in order to run their co-op. Thompson said the family wrote a letter questioning that requirement and asking for evidence that would suggest they were operating a food store.
The Stowers family members simply "take orders from (co-op) members … then divide up the food," Thompson explained.
"The health inspector didn't like the tone of the letter," Thompson said, and the result was that law enforcement officials planned, staged and carried out the raid on the family's home.
The "sale" of the eggs to the undercover agent, was in fact, entrapment, the family's lawyers have said, since the family members had told him they didn't sell food to the public and couldn't help him.
Eventually, when he refused to leave, the family gave him a dozen eggs to hasten his departure, Thompson explained.
The case goes to trial Thursday and Friday in Elyria.
also see http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/
You used my original work without a link. Too bad, we have the best coverage and access to the trial video at http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com
ReplyDeleteI always try to link to any article that I post text from, which in this case was from World Net Daily . . . I will edit the post to include a link to your blog.
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