Minister Sues Police After Arrest For Disciplining Children

The Associated Press yesterday reported on a lawsuit filed last month in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut against two police officers by a minister claiming false arrest, malicious prosecution and the violation of his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. Rev. Walter Oliver had been charged with assault and risk-of-injury charges in 2001 for beating two children with a belt because they disobeyed their mother. A jury acquitted him after he claimed that the spankings were meted out with the permission of the boys' mother and were done to carry out God's law. Rev. Oliver points to the verse from Proverbs 23:13-14: "If you beat him, he will not die, but you will save his soul from hell."